Translation: Sarah J. Turtle &
Iņaki Mendiguren
Eyelids
You've opened your eyes,
you have that smell of the newly awakened,
the taste of one who has slept.
You've closed your eyes,
lies jump around on your eyelids,
and I want to believe them all.
You've closed your eyes,
because what is hidden can be read
on the eyelids of the one who keeps silent,
in the same way that, when we close the eyes of the dead,
what the dead had to say, what they left unsaid
can be read on their eyelids.
You have the smell of one who has just slept,
the taste of the newly awakened,
you're like a new-born babe.
I want to believe your lies
as a child discovers
old truths.
© Leire Bilbao
© of the translation: Sarah J. Turtle & Iņaki Mendiguren