THE GOOD ANGEL
The one I wanted came,
the one I called.
Not the one who sweeps away defenseless skies,
stars without homes,
moons without a country,
snows.
The kind of snows that fall from a hand,
a name,
a dream,
a face.
Not the one who tied death
to his hair.
The one I wanted.
Without scraping air,
without wounding leaves or shaking windowpanes.
The one who tied silence
to his hair.
To scoop out, without hurting me,
a shoreline of sweet light inside my chest
so that my soul could sail.
Rafael Alberti
Translation by A. S. Kline