Moon, By VICENTE HUIDOBRO

We were so far from life

That the wind made us sigh

THE MOON TICKS LIKE A CLOCK

In vain have we fled

Winter fell on our path

And the past full of dry leaves

Misses the forest trail

So much we smoked beneath the trees

That the almonds smell of tobacco

Midnight

Over the distant life

Someone is weeping

And the moon forgot to strike the hour

From “The Poet Is a Little God” (Xenos Books, P.O. Box 52152, Riverside, Calif. 92517-3152). The verse of the Chilean experimental poet Vicente Huidobro (1893-1948) appears in a bilingual edition, with translations by Jorge Garcia-Gomez. 1990 Xenos Books.