‘This is the perfect hour’ by Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen
[Translated from the Portuguese by Colin Rorrison with Margaret Jull Costa]
This is the perfect hour when a hush descends
On our muted human murmurings
And inside us finally there speaks
The grave voice of indolent dreams.
This is the hour when roses are the roses
That flowered in the Persian gardens
Where Saadi and Hafiz saw and loved them.
This is the hour of the mysterious voices
Chosen and summoned by my desires.
This is the hour of the long conversations
Held between leaf and leaf.
This is the hour when time is abolished
And I do not even know my own face.