Time
(translation|modification of Tiempo)
by Luis S. González-Acevedo
Time passes effortlessly in childhood.
Grains of sand form their cone quickly.
As children, we close our eyes without seeing the disgrace
of a potential death forging its throne.
Cheerful spring of laughs and fables,
of games, projects and days without time…
Life is a sweet and fanciful invention
that at each moment hastens its tempo.
Adjacent is the kingdom of adolescence,
replete with dominative spirits in pursuit of conquests.
With the governance of enigmatic minds,
the youthful proceed in confusing ways.
Years of Puberty, season without equal…
You awaken Aphrodite, sleeping in childhood.
You’re the channel
through which youth reaches nascent adulthood.
Adults, destroyers of the past…
Living instants of sweet present,
and expecting to live a yearned for future
in familial love: among blood, our people.
Time provides the seeds
for the harvest of spring infants.
March, April and May submit to summer’s hold,
so it may love them with severe tenderness.
Smiling… Following their first steps…
Phonemes ascend from their lips
and fall, decorating the sky
and becoming crowns for gods and the wise.
Inevitable winter, who called you?
Who erroneously told you that autumn was dead?
If I ignored you in the spring,
I now consider you deceased.
Eternally, I’ll reign over summer.
Winter turned back its forces.
Time will lash my life in vain,
envying the mortal who overcame it.
–You can find the poem in Caribbean Poet, by Luis S. González-Acevedo or the original version in Spanish in Poemas Caribeños, por Luis S. González-Acevedo–
