Animal of Light by Pablo Neruda

I am an animal of light
Penned in by its errors and its foliage.
The forest is deep: here my fellow men
Pululate, retreat or come and go,
Whilst I withdraw accompanied
By the escort that time determines:
Waves of the sea, stars of the night.

Since my eyes have seen other eyes so much
And my mouth kissed so much,
Since I have swallowed the smoke
From those vanished trains:
The old remorseless stations
And the dust of incessant bookshops,
The mortal man that is· me got tired
Of eyes, kisses, smoke, roads,
Books thicker than the earth.

And today in the depths of the lost wood
He hears the nose of the enemy and flees
Not from others but from himself
From interminable conversation
'From the chorus that sang along with us
About the meaning of life.

Because one occasion, because one word, because one
Syllable or the passing of a silence
Or the unburied sound of the wave
Leave me face to face with truth
And there is nothing more to decipher,
Nor anything more to talk about: that was all:
The gates of the forest closed,
The sun circles opening the leaves,
The moon rises up like a white fruit
And man conforms to his destiny.

Translation by: Ciaran Cosgrove