IDENTITIES
«I am not nor am I the other»
Mário de Sá-Carneiro
What the water hides here is not a face,
nor what is heard beneath, its presence:
it is another identity, whose memory
not even forgetfulness could specify.
Beyond its voice the shadow vibrates
and states an I none other repeats,
as if time so alone in it were
the substance of an endless breath.
Jaime Siles
English Translation by Dave Oliphant