English Translation of the Spanish Poem: Silencio – Silence

My English translation and representing painting of the poem ‘Silencio’ by the celebrated Mexican poet Octavio Paz who won the Nobel prize for literature in 1990. Thank you Liz @lizethagc99 for showing me this poem.

Así como del fondo de la música

brota una nota

que mientras vibra crece y se adelgaza

hasta que en otra música enmudece,

brota del fondo del silencio

otro silencio, aguda torre, espada,

y sube y crece y nos suspende

y mientras sube caen

recuerdos, esperanzas,

las pequeñas mentiras y las grandes,

y queremos gritar y en la garganta

se desvanece el grito:

desembocamos al silencio

en donde los silencios enmudecen.

—

As from the depths of melody

sprouts a note

that throbs, grows and thins

until it fades into music again,

so springs from silence

yet another silence, spiky and sharp,

which rises, grows and suspends us

and while it rises, so fall our

memories, and lies big and small,

and we want to scream

but our cry fades in the throat and

we flow into silence

where the silences become mute.

—-***—-