* * *

by Juan Ramon Jimenez*

The white moon takes the sea away from the sea

 and gives it back to the sea. Beautiful,

 conquering by means of the pure and tranquil,

 the moon compels the truth to delude itself

 that it is truth become whole, eternal, solitary,

 though it is not so.

 Yes.

 Divine plainness,

 you pierce the familiar certainty, you place

 a new soul into whatever is real.

 Unpredictable rose! you took the rose away

 from the rose, and you could give back

 the rose to the rose. 

* * *

It is the sea, in the earth.

 Colors of the south, in the winter sun,

 contain the noisy shiftings

 of the sea and the coasts...

 Tomorrow in the sea!--I say, rather, in the earth

 that moves, now, into the sea! 

* * *

Oh, what sound of gold going,

 of gold now going to eternity;

 how sad our ear, to have to hear

 that gold that is going to eternity,

 this silence that is going to remain

 without its gold that is going to eternity! 

* Juan Ramón Jiménez, Spanish poet born in December 24, 1881. One of his most important contributions to modern poetry was the idea of poesía pura (pure poetry). A prolific author, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1956.