The Call - Jules Supervielle

[Larry Robinson]

The Call

Women in black picked up their violins
    To play, backs turned to the mirror.
The wind died as it does on the best days
    To hear better their dark music.
But almost at once, seized by a vast amnesia,
    The violins slumped in the women’s arms
    Like naked children fallen asleep
            Among the trees.
    Nothing it seemed could ever again stir
The motionless bows, the violins of marble,
    And it was then that in the depths of sleep
Someone breathed to me: “You alone can do it,
                        Come immediately.”
 
	- Jules Supervielle  
	(translated by Geoffrey Gardner)