Message To Blanca

                   for Blanca Subercaseaux

   I don't know if I can come.
let's see if I can reach you, sister.

   I'll arrive, if I do, on a mild wind,
so as not to freeze your plains,
or at the edges of your dream,
with love, and without a word.

   Stand up tall, in case I find it
hard to meet halfway,
and bring me a little earth
to remember my Inn by.

   Don't worry if I don't have a shape,
or if I look different.
And don't cry if I don't answer,
for my sin was words.
But give me yours, your word
that was like a bird alighting.


--Gabriela Mistral
translated by Ursula K. Le Guin