Poem

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Full of rage, grudge, and malice
I resolved one day, in brief,
to open my love's chest, see,
and pull out her heart to me.

That way I'd know, I said fuming,
whether that churlish heart of hers
which mistreats me maliciously
is made out of steel or pebbles.

I pursued her stealthily, not calmed,
carrying a long dagger on my hands
her virgin bosom I tore apart,
a woman with no soul was then that.

And when before me I saw her lying down,
a dreadful cry I uttered to the sky,
and my hands replete with blood were then drowned
into that wound I opened not quite shy!

I searched for it, then, careless,
inside her impious chest, there
it was as cold as dry air,
as an ossuary’s chest felt.

I looked for it with persistence,
but nothing there, no existence;
the one I had loved
had no heart at all!

– Federico Barreto

Adapted and translated by Pablo Alejos Flores

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. «No heart», a poem adaptation and translation written by Pablo Alejos Flores.