EPITAFIO PARA BORGES
poem by Alejandro Viñao in the style and ‘voice’ of Jorge Luis Borges

Somos tiempo, we are time,
somos sueño, we are a dream,
o el sueño que el tiempo soño, or a dream dreamt by time,
somos un rio, we are a river,
todos los rios, we are all rivers,
una imagen que cambia en el agua reflexions which change with the water,
una sombra en el espejo. shadows in the mirror.
Somos memoria We are memory itself,
y la memoria the memory
de un fuego que se extingue. of fire and a fading coal.
Somos (soy) lo que se pierde We are (I am) what is lost
no lo que reposa, not what remains,
lo cercano que se aleja what is part of us, yet parting from us:
somos esa queja we are the cry
que busca que algo quede. that cries that something should remain.

Translated by Craig Raine