Where does love go when it forgets?
It is not whom you question
It is who replies today.
It is another, to whom some more years of life
Gave the chance you didn’t have
Who may find a reply.
The toys of the child already a man,
Tell me, where did they go? You used to know,
Well, you were in a position to know.
Nothing remains of them: their ruins,
Formless and colourless, in the dust,
Time has carried them away.
The man who grows old finds in his mind,
In his longing, cheerless, empty spaces,
Where his loves walk.
But even if love dies, man still
Is not freed from love;
Its shade remains
And lust lingers on.
Where does love go when it forgets?
It is not whom you question
It is who replies today.
Luis Cernuda
From Troubled Times, 20th Century Spanish Poets, Prospice 15. Edited/Translated by J.C.R. Green, Albert Rowe, & Sandra MacGregor Hastie.
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