Poetry Daily: The Pacific Is the Sky, by Raúl Zurita

The Pacific Is the Sky

So torrents of the Seventh,
Fifth and Ninth. Riverbeds of
Bach, Beethoven and Amadeus
rapids of the sky, peaks and pastures

Estuaries and waterfalls of the Fourth
tributaries and sounds
of air, organs, summits
of Michimahuida, Aysén and oceans:

—The Pacific is the sky

Torrents of the sons of Espolón
Yelcho, lake and surroundings:

—The sky of Chile alive,

spuming

The Pacific is the sky bearing themselves then the rivers
that love each other opening themselves

Like fans swelling until they smash down in the waves
of the ocean that shatters over the horizon They are the
ancient rivers note the men looking at them No: they are
the tides of the sky answer the crests of the Pacific
squalls coming on among the clouds

In the foreground receiving the thousands of rivers
that once went to the encounter of those beaches It
is the ocean they repeat coming in No: they are the
beaches of the horizon it is the snow it is us rising
to find each other in the final torrent of all souls
the flayed of Chile scream revived among the waters
This is because I am the sky the Pacific repeats again
alive blue spuming with love above the mountains

Raúl Zurita
translated from the Spanish by Anna Deeny

The Paris Review
Summer 2012