You threw me a lemon, so bitter,
with a hand warm and so pure,
that its shape was not spoiled,
and I tasted its bitterness regardless.
With that yellow blow, from a sweet lethargy,
my blood passed to an anxious fever,
feeling the bite of the tip
of a breast that was firm and full.
But on gazing at you and seeing the smile
that broke from you, at this acid act,
so different from my voracious malice,
my blood stood still, inside my shirt,
and became that porous and golden breast
a pointed and dazzling pain.
Miguel Hernández
Translation by A. S. Kline