Night Poem by Reva Kern

Tonight rain fell on the coffee plantations
On the banana leaves
On the high branches of the Cambulos
Tonight the rain came in abundance
Growing the ditches and filling rivers
Groaning under their nocturnal cargo of muddy vegetation

Rain on zinc roofs
Sings its presence and prevents me from sleeping
Leaving me to cruise the waters in agitation
In the fresh night that bursts
Among the vaults of the coffee trees
It drains towards the sick trunks of the gigantic Balsos
Now suddenly, in the middle of the night
Rain has returned over the coffee plantations
And among the chattering water plants
Bringing me the untouched material of other days
Salvaged from work of other years.


Translated from the poem Nocturno by Álvaro Mutis