November Love

Seated before the sea, with the eyes of a child
I watch the diaphanous waves that rise on the yellow sand of the beach.
I see in them a distant memory of times when I was young,
A memory of lost youth, dark times, tormented times. Still—
I miss them and weep for them because they are a part of my life, and are life.
But my life, the life I have now, I feel is new. I suffer
from melancholy for those other times—I don’t deny it—
but I also hate them and wish I had never lived them.

Today I have found love in the most unexpected way like my grandmother said,
love is just around the corner, but this, this was just around the turn of my life.
Now I think of love and only of love, and it is all so very clear—or is it more obscure?
No, it is forbidden but very delicious because I love in secret. Secret? Yes, secret.

Today I found love and it is lovely, everything is lovely:
the beach, the cold water, the brown grass, the trees without leaves,
and this cold that burns my skin.
But my soul also burns. It consumes itself because it is on fire
Because today I found love…

--Rubén Uribe