TRANSLATION OF "ESTADOS DE ANIMO" (1974)

Moods by Mario Benedetti from "Poemas de Otros" (1974).
Translated by Yago Cura

Moods
by Mario Benedetti


Sometimes I feel
like a poor hill
and other times
like a mountain
of repeating peaks

sometimes I feel
like a cliff
and other times a sky
blue but far

sometimes one is
a geyser between rocks
and other times a tree
with its last leaves

but today I barely feel
like an insomniac lagoon
like a pier bereft of boats

a green lagoon
immobile and patient
happy with its algae
its moss and its fish

serene in my confidences
confident that one afternoon
you will come closer and look at yourself
and see yourself in your looking at me.