What the taxi driver said from Neuquen to Cipolletti Poem by Daniel Samoilovich

"There you have, for example, the tamarisc,
of no use at all, brought by
some fool, who knows
thinking what, not even good for wood."
But the black mass by the river
shivers with pride:
with black crooked thorns
it laughs at the dying evening,
at all the gentle
thoughts of this world, and also
at the strong ones: the useful and the useless
it mocks and its banner
is firmer than ours:
Not even for wood in the hearth
nor for fuel in bonfires am I.

Translated by Andrew Graham-Yooll