Neruda And Vallejo: Selected Poems Part 6

porque la cara de la muerte es verde,

y la mirada de la muerte es verde,

con la aguda humedad de una hoja de violeta

y su grave color de invierno exasperado.

Pero la muerte va tambien por el mundo vestida de escoba,

lame el suelo buscando difuntos,

la muerte est en la escoba,

es la lengua de la muerte buscando muertos,

es la aguja de la muerte buscando hilo.

La muerte est en los catres:

en los colchones lentos, en las frazadas negras

vive tendida, y de repente sopla:

sopla un sonido oscuro que hincha sbanas,

y hay camas navegando a un puerto

en donde est esperando, vestida de almirante.

NOTHING BUT DEATH.

There are cemeteries that are lonely,

graves full of bones that do not make a sound,

the heart moving through a tunnel,

in it darkness, darkness, darkness,

like a shipwreck we die going into ourselves,

as though we were drowning inside our hearts,

as though we lived falling out of the skin into the soul.

And there are corpses,

feet made of cold and sticky clay,

death is inside the bones,

like a barking where there are no dogs,

coming out from bells somewhere, from graves somewhere,

growing in the damp air like tears or rain.

Sometimes I see alone

coffins under sail,

embarking with the pale dead, with women that have dead hair,

with bakers who are as white as angels,

and pensive young girls married to notary publics,