Poem: Words to My Mother ~ Alfonsina Storni
Words to My Mother
~ Alfonsina Storni
Translated by Marion Freeman and Mary Crow
I don’t ask you to tell me the great truths
Because you wouldn’t tell me; I only ask
If, when you carried me in your belly, strolling through
Dark patios on bloom, the moon was a witness.
And if, when I slept listening
In your breast with its Latin passions,
A hoarse and singing sea lulled you to sleep nights
And if you watched in the gold dusk, the sea birds plunge.
For my soul is all fantasy, a voyager,
And it is wrapped in a cloud of dancing folly
When the new moon ascends the dark blue sky.
And, lulled by a clear song of sailors, it likes—
If the sea unlocks its strong perfumes—
To watch the great birds that pass without destination.
