Horses Poem by Murilo Mendes

Horses gallop over the vast plain.
Going where?
Going to look for the head of the Dauphin that is rolling
down the stairs.
The spirited horses shake out their long blue manes.
One holds in his teeth the white dead actress he drew from
the waters,
Others carry the wind's message to vanished explorers,
Others carry wheat to peoples abandoned by their leaders.
The lean blue horses whinny toward the airplane,
Pound the hard earth with their shining hooves.
They are the last of an old race, man's companion.
He will replace them with mechanical horses
And throw them into the abyss of history.
The impatient blue horses have closed off the curve of
the horizon,
Wakening trumpets in the dawn.


Translated by W. S. Merwin