Afterwards - Homero Manzi

Afterwards…

the bloody moon and your emotion,

knowing that the end is coming

on a dark stormcloud.

Later…

unfathomably,

your eyes, so empty,

weeping painlessly.

And afterwards…

the enormous night

in the windowpane,

and you tire of life

and I long to fight.

Later…

your skin like snow

and in an airy absence

your pale end.

Everything returns from memory:

your pain and your silence

your anguish and your mystery.

Everything plunges into the abyss of the past:

your name, repeated,

your doubt and your weariness.

A shadow stronger than death,

a scream lost in oblivion,

a step back from the edge of ruin,

a song torn to pieces

that still remains a song.

Afterwards…

forgetting will come or it will not…

and I will lie so I can laugh

and I will lie so I can cry.

Clumsy

ghost of the past

dancing on a pile of intrigues

for a chance to forget.

And afterwards,

in the silence of your voice

the pain of solitude will come

and I will scream just to stay alive…

as though I flee from those memories,

repentant,

just so I can die.

---

Homero Manzi [Homero Nicolás Manzione Prestera] (1907 - 1951) Argentina

Translated by Derek Del Pilar

Source: The Poetry of the Tango