The Streets

My soul is in the streets

of Buenos Aires.

Not the greedy streets

jostling with crowds and traffic,

but the neighborhood streets where nothing is happening,

almost invisible by force of habit,

rendered etrenal in the dim light of sunset,

and the ones even farther out,

empty of comforting trees,

where austere little houses scarcely venture,

overwhelmed by deathless distances,

losing themselves in the deep expanse

of sky and plains.

For the solitary one they are a promise

because thousands of singular souls inhabit them,

unique before God and in time

and no doubt precious.

To the West, the North, and the South

unfold the streets-and they too are my country:

within these lines I trace

may their flags fly.

(1923)

***

Las calles de Buenos Aires

ya mi son entrana.

No las avidas calles,

incomodas de turba y de ajetreo,

sino lasa calles desganandas del barrio,

casi invisibles de habituales,

enternecides de penumbra y de ocaso

y aquellas mas afuera

ajenas de arboles piadosos

donde austeras casitas apenas se aventuran,

abrumadas por immortales distancias,

a perderse en la honda vision

de cielo y de Banura.

Son para el solitario una promesa

porque millares de almas singulares las pueblan,

unicas ante Dios y e el tiempo

y sin duda preciosas.

Hacia el Oeste, el Norte y el Sur

se han desplegado-y son tambien la patria-las calles:

ojala en los versos que trazo

esten esas banderas.