IX

At sunset on the day when you died
the sun disappeared amid bleeding clouds,
amid prophetic clouds that foreshadowed
the tormented longing of men.

After being carried from the sea
to a cage, the poor imprisoned quail,           Numbers 11:31.
jumps, longing to be free and fly out
over the fields; but in its futile efforts
to jump, it splatters the roof of the cage
with blood from its head, and sometimes
it succumbs, a victim of its own desires.

Is not the blood of that setting sun
a symbol of the sorrowful thoughts
of the poor human soul who jumped up
in a mad attempt to examine the vault
of blue sky, to open it and see the eyes
of the One who sent You to give your blood
in exchange for that tragic blood?

A condor from the Andes was cruelly
blinded, and the grim monarch
of the peaks, thinking he was at the bottom
of a dark ravine, began to fly rising
carefully in order to prevent his wings
from striking against the sharp rocks;
searching for light without sight, he rises
and, finding nothing, he continues to climb;
he rises so high that the air becomes thin
and it is difficult to fly or to breathe;
scarcely able to suck in air, he continues
seeking the light with his empty eyes,
but his curved beak drops over his heart
which had burst, and he plummets down dead.

This is like the man with an insatiable spirit
who rises to the heights in search of light,
scarcely able to breathe or to fly, still seeking
knowledge, in spite of his suffocation;
but You, Light of Glory, came down
to give men the life that was light,
the light that shines in the darkness,
illuminating your brothers who were left
to breathe the polluted air of this land,
air mixed with the fog of their tears
and the sweat of their penitence.

Your death brought God down to earth.
You have given earth the true light,
and with it you have cleansed our souls;
with your blood, which is light, you have turned
our souls into blood, giving sight to the blind.
In the beginning God blinded us so that,
like Saul on the road to Damascus, we were able,           Acts 9:8.
to die at your feet; and with your death
He gave us the light we had struggled to find
in the heights of human knowledge.