TIME

Time

“Time, open the door
somewhere in the back of your mind.
Child, you don’t have time
anymore.”
(The Chameleons – «Time, the End of Time», from «Strange Times»)

Por fin he comprendido
lo que es envejecer.
No es algo que pueda enseñarse.
Para aprenderlo
hay que vivirlo.
No existe otro camino.

No se trata de ir perdiendo nada.
Salvo quizás carencias:
La ingenuidad – la llaman inocencia
y es falta de experiencia -,
el entusiasmo
– falta de perspectiva –
y, finalmente, el miedo –
que no es sino la falta
de conexión con todo -.

A cambio el Tiempo
se cobra un precio
– que es (casi) irrelevante – :
el pelo, dientes,
quizás parte del ímpetu
y, finalmente, algo de casquería.

Time

At last I’ve understood
what it means to age.
It’s not something to be taught.
To learn it
you must live it.
There is no other way.

It’s not about losing anything.
Except perhaps some lacks:
Naïveté – they call it innocence
and it’s lack of experience -,
enthusiasm
– lack of perspective –
and, finally, fear –
which is nothing but the lack
of connection to everything.

In return Time
exacts a price
– which is (almost) irrelevant -:
hair, teeth,
perhaps part of the drive
and, finally, some carrion.

 

“And in the end, an August sun
and one by one we blew
until the devil screamed in the evermore
in envy of the grace we saw.”
(Sea Power – «Carrion», from «The Decline of British Sea Power»)

(«Time» was written at August 17, 2017)

All Neil A. Morrison’s work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License [creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/]