la casa deshabitada... (after E.Diego)

"porque llega un hora en que todas las casas se despueblan de sus ruidos mortales..."*

(there were cut bunches in buckets and stacked in boxes

everywhere, and they came very early in the

mornings to gather for their shops,

for their homes)

the abandoned building sits on the edge of chinatown, slowly corroding in the rain...

***

"y las vidrieras son frias como esos invernaderos desolados..."**

(even on the coldest day, the tight blooms and bundled greens

suffused the air with their dying scents,

their fading colours so composed

for a little longer)

a warehouse filled with flowers traded in kindnesses by the 3 chinese brothers...

***

"y es como si no hubiese venido nadie, como si nadie mirase los recintos del hombre,

bajo los astros."***

(that was many years ago and most will not remember this

as a place for the joy seeking, for the death

honouring and for the every day

of the living)

and where the brothers now, where grow the lilies, where stars still shimmer on...

*selected lines in spanish from "Bajo los Astros", a poem by ELISEO DIEGO, 1920-1994 

(translation by Kathleen Weaver, 1982)

*"because an hour comes when every house will empty of its mortal noises..."

**"and window panes are cold like those bleak greenhouses..."

***"and it is just as if no one had ever come, as if no one had seen the haunts of man, under the stars."