José Ángel Valente: “Angel”

Angel

At dawn,
when the harshness of the day still is strange,
I meet you again at the exact horizon
from which the night recedes.

I know your dark transparency,
your invisible face,
the wing or the blade
with which I’ve been fighting.

You exist or return
or else reappear
at the extreme limit, Lord,
of what cannot be remembered.

Don’t separate
the shadow from the light it has engendered.

José Ángel Valente

Translated from Spanish by Paul Weinfield, © 2015