Octavio Paz, "Sunday On The Island Of Elephanta"

[the_grynne]

SUNDAY ON THE ISLAND OF ELEPHANTA

Imprecation

At the feet of the sublime sculptures,
vandalized by the Muslims and the Portuguese,
the crowds have left a picnic of garbage
for the crows and dogs.
I condemn them to be reborn a thousand times
on a dungheap,
                          and as for the others,
for eons they must carve living flesh
in the hell for the mutilators of statues.

Invocation

Shiva and Parvati:
                               we worship you
not as gods
                    but as images
of the divinity of man.
You are what man makes and is not,
what man will be
when he has served the sentence of hard labor.
Shiva:
            your four arms are four rivers,
four jets of water.
                               Your whole being is a fountain
where the lovely Parvati bathes,
where she rocks like a graceful boat.
The sea beats beneath the sun:
it is the great lips of Shiva laughing;
the sea is ablaze:
it is the steps of Parvati on the waters.
Shiva and Parvati:
                               the women who is my wife
and I
         ask you for nothing, nothing
that comes from the other world:
                                                        only
the light on the sea,
the barefoot light on the sleeping land and sea.

OCTAVIO PAZ

Translated from the Spanish by Eliot Weinberger



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