Al gran pleno o conciencia integral

Que en su estatua el alto Cero
mármol frío,
ceño austero
y una mano en la mejilla—
del gran remanso del río,
medite, eterno, en la orilla,
y haya gloria eternamente.
Y la lógica divina,
que imagina,
pero nunca imagen miente
—no hay espejo; todo es fuente—,
diga: sea
cuanto es, y que se vea
cuanto ve. Quieto y activo
—mar y pez y anzuelo vivo,
todo el mar en cada gota,
todo el pez en cada huevo,
todo nuevo—,
lance unánime su nota.
Todo cambia y todo queda,
piensa todo,
y es a modo,
cuando corre, de moneda,
un sueño de mano en mano.
Tiene amor, rosa y ortiga,
y la amapola y la espiga
le brotan del mismo grano.
Armonía;
todo canta en pleno día.
Borra las formas del cero,
torna a ver,
brotando de su venero,
las vivas aguas del ser.

To the Great Fullness or Aggregate Consciousness

May the high Zero in its monument—
cold marble physique,
brow sternly bent,
the hand against the cheek—
eternal, on the shore of the great
pool of the river meditate
in glory eternally.
May the godly ratiocination
in its imagination
(but images never tell
a lie—there’s no mirror, all’s a well)
say: let be
all that is, let all that see
be seen. All that are still
and all that strive
— sea and fish and hook that’s alive,
the whole sea in a drop of spray,
the whole fish there within the roe,
new today—
launch their note with a single will.
All things stay and all things flow,
all things
think; it’s the way
of money, when at speed
from hand to hand, a dream, it goes.
Both have love, thistle and rose;
the poppy and the ripened ear
spring to it from the selfsame seed.
Harmony you hear;
in broad day everything sings.
Erase each guise
of zero, turn and you’re seeing,
as from their spring they rise,
the living waters of being.

Antonio Machado (1875 - 1939) was a Spanish poet. “To the Great Fullness or Aggregate Consciousness” is among the poems Machado ascribed to his fictional character Abel Martín in From the Apocryphal Songbook (1926).

Gerald Friedman grew up in suburban Cleveland, Ohio, and now teaches in northern New Mexico. He has published original poetry in various journals, recently Cold Moon Journal, Rat’s Ass Review, Cattails, and The Daughter’s Grimoire. His translations from Antonio Machado have appeared in Ezra and will soon appear elsewhere. You can read more of his work at https://jerryfriedman.wixsite.com/my-site-2