"Nocturne" by Rubén Darío

to Mariano de Cavia

You, who auscultate the heart of the night,
who have heard in your persistent insomnia
the closing of a door, the sound of a distant car,
a vague echo, a slight noise ...

In moments of mysterious silence,
when from their prison the forgotten arise,
at the time of the dead, in the hour of rest,
you will know how to read these verses impregnated with bitterness...

I pour on them my pain as in a glass
of distant memories and dire misfortunes,
and the dismal nostalgia of my soul, drunk with flowers,
and the grief of my heart, sad with feasts.

And the regret of not being what I would have been,
the loss of the kingdom that was in me,
for a moment the thought I could not have been born,
And the dream my life is, since I came into being!

All this comes amid the deep silence
when night enfolds the earthly illusion,
and I feel like an echo of the heart of the world
penetrating and touching my own heart.