La Marioneta
The Puppet
If for a moment God would forget that
I am a rag doll and give me a scrap of life,
possibly I would not say everything that I think,
but I would definitely think everything that I say.
I would value things
not for how much they are worth
but rather for what they mean.
I would sleep little, dream more.
I know that for each minute that we close our eyes
we lose sixty seconds of light.
I would walk when the others loiter;
I would awaken when the others sleep.
I would listen when the others speak,
and how I would enjoy a good chocolate ice cream.
If God would bestow on me a scrap of life,
I would dress simply,
I would throw myself flat under the sun,
exposing not only my body but also my soul.
My God, if I had a heart,
I would write my hatred on ice
and wait for the sun to come out.
With a dream of Van Gogh
I would paint on the stars a poem by Benedetti,
and a song by Serrat would be my serenade to the moon.
With my tears I would water the roses,
to feel the pain of their thorns
and the incarnated kiss of their petals...
My God, if I only had a scrap of life...
I wouldn't let a single day go by
without saying to people I love,
that I love them.
I would convince each woman or man
that they are my favourites and
I would live in love with love.
I would prove to the men how mistaken they are
in thinking that they no longer fall in love when they grow old--
not knowing that they grow old when they stop falling in love.
To a child I would give wings, but
I would let him learn how to fly by himself.
To the old I would teach that
death comes not with old age but with forgetting.
I have learned so much from you men....
I have learned that everybody wants to live
at the top of the mountain without realizing
that true happiness lies in the way we climb the slope.
I have learned that when a newborn
first squeezes his father's finger in his tiny fist,
he has caught him forever.
I have learned that a man only has the right
to look down on another man
when it is to help him to stand up.
I have learned so many things from you,
but in the end most of it will be no use
because when they put me inside that suitcase,
unfortunately I will be dying.
Translated by Matthew Taylor and Rosa Arelis Taylor
________________________________________________________________
I don't mean death here, but separation.
If only, humans could know the future!
Source: http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/marquez.html
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