I breathe the scent of wind that perhaps brushed

The fields and rivers of my hometown;

Perhaps it returns to me everything I left behind:

The kisses, the sighs of one most adored,

The sweet secrets of the virginal throb.

 

Looking at the same moon, then as silvery,

Inside me revives the old melancholy,

And reawakes love’s vows and memories…

A patio, a balcony, a beach, a garden sanctuary,

Silences and sighs, blushes of delight…

 

A butterfly thirsting for light and colors,

Dreaming of other skies, a larger strife,

I left, hardly a youth, my country and my affections,

Wandering about with neither qualm nor quake,

Squandering in strange places the April of my life.

 

And later, a weary swallow, when I longed

To return to the nest of those whom I love,

A blustering wind suddenly roared,

Leaving my wings broken, my walls razed,

My faith sold to others, and ruins everywhere.

 

Hurled upon this rock of the country I adore,

The future lost, without home or health,

You come to me again, in dreams of rose and gold—

In my entire life, the solitary treasure—

The unaffected faith of robust youth.