The Promise (poem)

 

Honored to have my poem “The Promise” included in The Hudson Review, a leading magazine of literature and the arts. My gratitude to Rhina P. Espaillat for the exceptional translation.

 

The Promise

by José Acosta

 

We pursue forever the one we will become,

the one beyond, the one that our desire creates, happy,

once past this terrible light of the present.

 

And we behold him there fulfilling

his promise to be our very selves.

Often he is seated before the beloved sun;

but always his back is to this road

we have been traveling.

 

With no future, because the fullness of time

is with him.

 

We know, each morning, that today we will not

be who he is. And at last,

when we die, we see him turn his face,

there, far away, as if to bid us farewell.

 

[Translated from the Spanish by Rhina P. Espaillat]

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Origin en español (del poemario Destrucciones)

 

La promesa

 

                                    A Dionisio López Cabral

 

PERSEGUIMOS SIEMPRE AL QUE SEREMOS,

al que es más allá, al que nuestro deseo

construye dichoso

después de esta luz terrible del presente.

 

Y lo vemos allá, lejano, cumpliendo

la promesa de ser nosotros mismos.

Muchas veces sentado frente al sol amado,

pero siempre de espaldas a este camino

que hemos venido tomando.

 

Sin futuro, porque toda la plenitud del tiempo

le acompaña.

 

Sabemos, todas las mañanas, que hoy no

seremos él. Y al final,

al nosotros morir, le vemos volver el rostro,

allá, distante, como diciéndonos adiós.