“I Am Not I” BY JUAN RAMÓN JIMÉNEZ

from Lorca and Jiménez: Selected Poems. 

 “I Am Not I”

BY JUAN RAMÓN JIMÉNEZ

from Lorca and Jiménez: Selected Poems. 

TRANSLATED BY ROBERT BLY

I am not I.

                   I am this one

walking beside me whom I do not see,

whom at times I manage to visit,

and whom at other times I forget;

who remains calm and silent while I talk,

and forgives, gently, when I hate,

who walks where I am not,

who will remain standing when I die.