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the white room
The obvious is difficult
To prove. Many prefer
The hidden. I did, too.
I listened to the trees.
They had a secret
Which they were about to
Make known to me,
And then didn’t.
Summer came. Each tree
On my street had its own
Scheherazade. My nights
Were a part of their wild
Storytelling. We were
Entering dark houses,
More and more dark houses
Hushed and abandoned.
There was someone with eyes closed
On the upper floors.
The thought of it, and the wonder,
Kept me sleepless.
The truth is bald and cold,
Said the woman
Who always wore white.
She didn’t leave her room much.
The sun pointed to one or two
Things that had survived
The long night intact,
The simplest things,
Difficult in their obviousness.
They made no noise.
It was the kind of day
People describe as “perfect.”
Gods disguising themselves
As black hairpins? A hand-mirror?
A comb with a tooth missing?
No! That wasn’t it.
Just things as they are,
Unblinking, lying mute
In that bright light,
And the trees waiting for the night.
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la habitación blanca
Lo obvio es difícil
de probar. Preferimos
lo oculto. También yo.
Escuchaba a los árboles.
Tenían un secreto,
y estuvieron a punto
de revelármelo:
nunca lo hicieron.
En el verano cada árbol
de mi calle tenía una
Sheherezada. Eran parte
mis noches de sus cuentos
salvajes. Me llevaban
por casas cada vez
más oscuras, por casas
abandonadas, mudas.
Alguien de ojos cerrados
habitaba en los altos.
Pensarlo me asombraba
y me quitaba el sueño.
La verdad: simple y fría,
dijo la mujer siempre
de blanco. No salía
apenas de su cuarto.
Al sol, una o dos cosas
que habían sobrevivido
la larga noche intactas,
las cosas más sencillas,
en su obviedad difícil.
No hacían ningún ruido.
Era un día de esos
que se llaman “perfectos”.
¿Los dioses disfrazados
de horquillas? ¿Un espejo
de mano? ¿Un peine
sin dientes? Nada de eso.
Las cosas como son,
sin parpadear, calladas
en su fulgor. Los árboles
esperaban la noche.
The White Room” from The Book of Gods and Devils.
1990 by Charles Simic.
Printed by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Source: The Book of Gods and Devils (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1990)
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