THE SUICIDE By Jorge Luis Borges
Not a single star will be left in the night.
The night will not be left.
I will die and, with me,
the weight of the intolerable universe.
I shall erase the pyramids, the medallions,
the continents and faces.
I shall erase the accumulated past.
I shall make dust of history, dust of dust.
Now I am looking on the final sunset.
I am hearing the last bird.
I bequeath nothingness to no one.
TRANSLATED FROM THE SPANISH BY ALASTAIR REID
From “Selected Poems” by Jorge Luis Borges, edited by Alexander Coleman (Viking: 477 pp., $40)
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