My Dog Has Died.

 

My dog has died

I burried him in the garden

Next to the old big tree,

 

Someday I'll join him there

But now he's gone with his brown coat

His bad manners and his cold nose,

And I believe his soul has dissolved

into the Universe

Like I will be,

Yes I believe I will meet him there

Where he waits for my arrival

Waving his fan-like tail in friendship,

 

Ai,...I'll not speak of sadness here on earth

Of having lost a beloved companion,

Who has never servile,

His friendship for me is like a procupine

witholding it's authority

Was the friendship of a star, aloof,

With no more intimacy that was called for

With no exaggerations,

He never climb all over me

Licked my face, of followed me ,

Like other dogs obsessed with attention,

 

No, my dog just used to gazed at me

Paying me the attention that I need

The attention required

To make a vain person like me understand

That being a dog, he was wasting time

But with those eyes so much purer than mine

He'd keep on gazing at me

With a look that reserved for me alone

All his sweet and shaggy life

Always near me

Comforting me

And ask for nothing,

 

Ai,... how many times I envied his tail

and his smile and joyful steps,

As we walked every morning and evening

No matter sunshine or lonely rainy days

And my dog was sniffing and jogging around

Full of voltage of  the day's movement

Yes my wandering dog sniffing around

Light steps jogging lightly happilly

With his tail held high,

joyful, joyful, joyful,

As only dogs know how to be happy,

With the autonomy

Of their high spirits,

 

There are no goodbyes for my dog who has died

As we never lied to each other,

One thing I loved him most

Was because he never break my heart,

Exept now, that he's gone

 and I burried him,

And that's there is to it.

 

(In memoriam, Casta my dog, March 20, 1999-January 27,2013)

Poem from Pablo Neruda.