TO DIE

An evening brimming with purples, rivers of crimson

putrefies above the enfeebled plains,

and powerfully, with the fists of its clouds

pulverises suns upon a green-tinged horizon.

Monumental season! Like October, with indolence

and unconcern, swells and expires in this scenery

apples! clots of fire; grapes! golden rosaries,

which quivering fingers touch with light caresses

one last time, before winter. The flight

of the great crows? It’s coming. But now is still the hour

of lacquered leafage – and it’s the finest.

Sprouting of strawberries bloodies the ground,

the wood reaches her russet hands to the sky

as out there, in the distance, bronze and iron sound;

an aroma of water mingles with the scent of quince,

and the marrying perfumes of moss and iris.

The pond, flat, clear, reflects immensely,

between slender birches with stirring branches

the heavily-rising moon, huge and red,

that appears as a lovely ripened fruit, gently emerging.

To die like this, my body, to die, would be my dream.

Beneath a sovereign inrush of shades and songs

with, in glances, golds and sunsets

with, in the brain, rivers of sap.

To die! Like overgrown flowers, to die!

Too massive and too gigantic for life.

Mighty death would be amply furnished

and our great pride immune from anguish.

To die, my body. Like autumn, to die!