Don't Save Yourself/ No Te Salve

It's been quite awhile since I've posted. Happy 2011. I have been reading and writing, and plan to post more often again. Here's a poem I find very inspiring and beautiful.


Don't Save Yourself
(Translated from the Spanish “No Te Salves”)

by Mario Benedetti

Don't stay motionless by the roadside,
don't freeze joy or love halfheartedly.
Don't save yourself
now,
or ever.
Don't save yourself,
don't become
serene.
Don't keep only a still corner in this world,
don't let your eyelids droop heavy
like judgments.
Don't stay without lips,
don't sleep without dreams,
imagine you're bloodless
or judge yourself in haste.

But if
after all
you can't help it
and you freeze joy
and you love halfheartedly
and you save yourself,
become serene,
keep a still corner in the world
let your eyelids drop heavy as judgments
and stay without lips
and sleep without dreams,
imagine yourself bloodless,
judge yourself in haste and
stay motionless by the side of the road,

and you save yourself
then
don't stay with me.