The Ship, Solid And Black Poem by Juan Ramón Jiménez

The ship, solid and black,
enters the clear blackness
of the great harbor.
Quiet and cold.
—The people waiting
are still asleep, dreaming,
and warm, far away and still stretched out in this
dream, perhaps . . .

How real our watch is, beside the dream
of doubt the others had! How sure it is, compared
to their troubled dream about us!
Quiet. Silence.
Silence which in breaking up at dawn
will speak differently.


Translated by Robert Bly