For a Version of I Ching

The imminent is immutable

As rigid yeserday. There is no matter

That rates more than a single, silent letter

In the eternal and inscrutable

Writing whose book is time. He who believes

He's left his home already has come back.

Life is a future and well-travelled track.

Nothing dismisses us. Nothing leaves.

Do not give up. The prison is bereft

Of light, its fabric is incessant iron,

But in some corner of your mean environs

You might discover a mistake, a cleft.

The road is fatal as an arrow's flight

But God is watching in the narrowest light.

(1976)

***

El porvenir es tan irrevocable

Como el rigido ayer. No hay una cosa

Que no sea una letra silenciosa

De la eterna escritura indescrifrable

Cuyo libro es el tiempo. Quien se aleja

De su casa ys ha vuelto. Nuestra vida

Es la senda futura y recorrida.

Nada nos dice adios. Nada nos deja.

No te rindas. la ergastula es oscura,

la firme trama es da incesante hierro

puede haber un descuido, una hendidura,

El camino es fatal como la flecha

Pero en las grietas esta Dios, que acecha.

(1976)