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Hugo
Santander COLUMBIA
Sonnets to Coralie I The cruelest wind came from the meadows Virgin furrows where we used to graze, I, ill-born creature, adopted by the beasts That nature grows and feeds Our bodies used to be the shelter of a sky Blue or gray, free from the impurities of earth Milk and honey used to came out from your palms The source of all the brooks and seas I knew After the voice of your departure came I ground and broke my teeth at night Vestige of many atrocious dreams Cleansed by charitable souls at dawn How my tears try in vain to fill your gap I remain faithful to you even without you Forging arrows out of foreign words Expecting to pierce your iron heart II You leave, then, the treasures of El Dorado, With words as threatening as death The orchid and the hummingbird no longer touch you They will fade off with my words as well I can't recognize you in the girl that moves away Casting me on the Caribbean shores My spouse used to flank wrath and sorrow Without yielding to adversity and detachment The vestiges of the affair I once deemed happy Are drowning in the flat I had just built Barren by your cause, now devastated Or perhaps I'm the one who dies at every step ¿Whereto your warm embrace? ¿Whereto the continent you used to explore? Holding to your written promises I wait For the redemption by the woman I yet love III It was a day before my birthday On November tenth two thousand eight Though I was fated to learnt it before Christmas Thunderbolt that scorched the Andean heights Vultures envious of your prize Chuckled on the imperfections of my love With a polite grind you gave me a cup of tea Among linen covers your hands put me to sleep When I woke up you were no longer there Unwilling to recognize my woe I called your name for forty days and nights Tears and silence came out from the earth Then a light broke from the sky "These are the coldest dungeons of my soul" I heard confounding echoes of your voice Since then I fight with angels for your safe return IV You, who were in charge, Of all the beatings of my heart, Ditch what I deemed so dear to you And ask me to go on with lethal wounds You, whom I confided, The fees and genii of my soul Lay them to rest into the deepest tomb They still cry for help in non-believing grounds You, the one in charge, Of all our happy days and tranquil nights Evade me as a leper torn out by crows and hyenas And denies me the solace of a embrace You, for whom I built the cities of the world, Brings indolence and humiliation in return Expecting my forgetfulness or hate As if I could carry on without the water and the sun V The darkest hour shimmers Under the beams of toil and obligation Acclaims and compliments are heard Applauding the feats I reached for her A gray sedan comes out from the past To bring me over the roads and towns I once promised for a smile of her Bequest that fortune concedes and rebuffs A colleague of mine asks me for her love I replied that such was the gloss of contempt Amongst adulteresses and bachelors She shrugs her shoulders at my voice But my heart deny her tearless days Against her coldness and belief I know they are but delusions of the flesh Bursts of laugh that sprout, rot and die VI A turbulent month ends And a gentle breeze caresses my palms You write me asking me for a break up Yes, I won't turn my back on you It was at night when I woke up And you were no longer there One night when you ignored my care One night when I expired in the Caribbean Sea One night when I painfully understood I was less than a stranger to your friends But one night our toils will be but dust Away, then, I'll kiss my friend again For we live many an infinite experience From pain, misery and reward Secret that God revealed at the beginning Solace of a fair love-weary life
Copyright, Hugo Santander.
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