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poems from the dome
These poems featured in a special meridian-line display at the Millennium Dome exhibition, Greenwich, UK.

 

La mano que te escribe
by Justo Jorge Padrón, 1943, Spain

No son fechas ni historias las horas que abrazamos,
si siquiera un puñado de palabras
o bandadas de imágenes en el aire elocuente.
Desde mi frente salta el caudal de tu nombre,
y en aquella agua inmóvil que te mira
desde el pasado, vives siempre igual a ti misma,
sin que los años puedan calcinarte.

The hand that writes you
by Justo Jorge Padr
ón, 1943, Spain

They are not history, dates, the hours we embrace,
Not even a handful of words
Or flocks of images in eloquent air.
From my forehead springs your name's flow,
And in that still water staring at you
From the past, you live always the way you were,
Unburnt by the years.

translation by Louis Bourne

dome poems