Hung on a cliff
sleeps my white town
under a sky that, by dint
of never seeing the sea,
forgot to cry.
Through its alleys of dust and stone
by not passing, the war didn't pass.
Only the forgotten…
walks slowly bordering the narrow pass
where a flower doesn't grow
nor does the pastor move to new pastures.
The sacristan has seen
the priest get old.
The priest has seen the officer
and the officer the sacristan.
And my town later
saw the three die…
And I ask myself why people will be born
if being born and dying is indifferent.
From the harvest to the sowing
one lives in the tavern.
The godmothers murmured
their story in the doorstep
of their homes of lime.
And the women make bobbin
searching for, hidden behind the lace curtain,
this young man
that, night to night, they shaped in their mind.
Strong in order to be their man.
Tender for love…
They dream of him,
and he leaving far away
from his town. And the elderly
dream about dieing in peace,
and dying by dying,
they want to die in the sun.
Their mouths open to the heat, like lizards.
Half hidden behind a hat of esparto.
Escape ye tender people,
for this land is cursed,
and don't wait for tomorrow
that which wasn't told to thee yesterday,
for there is nothing to do.
Take thy mule, thy wife and thy gear.
Follow the path of the Hebrew people
and search for another moon.
Perhaps tomorrow fortune will favour.
And if it is thy turn to cry
it is better facing the sea.
If I could join myself
to a flight of doves,
and crossing hills
leave my town behind,
I swear for what I was
that I would leave from here…
But the dead are in captivity
and they won't allow us to leave from the cemetery.