by Manuel Luís Acuña (Pobra de Trives, Ourense)
from Fírgoas (Crevices), 1933
Translated by John Rutherford

Neither white nor black.
Exactly.
Without quaking of rivers
without chiming of birds.
Without rhythm of stars
or crashings in fearful night,
without howls of wolves
when the wind races over field-ridges and through gorges.
Without sobs of trees
when roses are drowned in the whirlpools of sunset.
Peripheral.
Without tree-heart or bone-marrow.
Flat.
Without embraces of curves or farewells of crags.
GREY.