The cock on the weathervane
Cannot flap his wings
Even though today is a feast.
The sun spreads his great yellow
Carpet in the courtyard
As Anna del Campo passes by.
Gold quilts on the balconies,
Diamonds on the roofs
Domes and towers.
Anna del Campo has come
With her nose in the air
A dew damsel.
The cock would like to crow
Poor tin Don Juan
Stuck on his belfry.
Clouds wheel round him
In his blue hen-yard,
The burning bird flashes.
Silver cock in the wind,
Sun-cock, paralyzed
In a desert of roofs.
Cathedral ascetic
He knows no other corn
Than the sky’s kind: hail.
Anna del Campo goes by:
He flashes sun-signals
To his friend, the lightning rod.
Anna: take me to the door
Of your house of flowers
Where bliss never ends.
Give me your cool dew
For my throat of sand:
Give me your lily-field!
Jorge Carrera Andrade (1903 - 1978) Ecuador
Translated by Thomas Merton
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