Madrigals by Nicolás Guillén

that hazy crocodile swimming in the black Zambeze of your eyes

Madrigals

by Nicolás Guillén ¹

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I.

Your belly knows more than your brain
and as much as your muscles.
That
is the strong black wit
of your naked body.

Yours is the mark of the jungle—
with your bright red collars,
your bracelets of beaten gold,
and that hazy crocodile swimming
in the black Zambeze of your eyes.

II.

On the tips of your fingers the nails
hang like a cluster of ten purple grapes.
Your skin,
when the glowing barge of your body
founders and sinks in your mirror, singes
the delicate algae shy in the murky depths. 

1. Poetry (October 1948). Translated by Robert Brittain from Spanish.