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  • In Fields of Sleepdreaming
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In Fields of Sleepdreaming

Delmira Agustini

The pack of wild colts went smoking by,
muzzles ferocious, hides hirsute,
manes swept out stiff, bold, like thick staves;
they came through as the fierce North Winds do;

Then they were eagles of varied and somber plumage
bringing grand visions from their peaks;
in the serene flight of their august inspiration,
in the pride of Olympian lineage

they crossed eastward through the translucid
sky; behind them, like a candid host
rising in flight, a dove white as the snow appears.

I can forget the great, egregious bird and the fiery brute
when I think that in the solemn skies of Ideas
what is sometimes lovely, very lovely, is a dove.


Delmira Agustini

from These Are Not Sweet Girls – Poetry by Latin American Women (Buffalo, NY: White Pine Press, 1994)

translated by Mark McCaffrey

Reproduced by the kind permission of the translator.

Tags:

dreams horses metamorphosis sonnets South American poetry Uruguay

About this poem

This poem, representing Uruguay, is part of The Written World – our collaboration with BBC radio to broadcast a poem from every single nation competing in London 2012.

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