La Siesta

Juan Gil-Albert: paradoxes

If someone should ask me one day, when I reach that secret boundary: what is the earth? I would say a place where it’s cold to those whom the strong oppress, a place where the weak cry out, where like a shadow injustice moves with billowing cape, gathering up the rich man’s loose change and the tragedy of the homeless: a sudden place. But also I would say that other times in clear but changing situations, when summer comes and the land seems to dispense a somnolence and one grows tired without knowing why, while high above, a dazzling blue sky hums, and fruits appear in succession on white tables, under great, half-open windows, in cool penumbral light, we look for a corner where we might surrender ourselves to this sweet weight, then yes, I would say that the earth is an irreplaceable good, a flowing happiness, an entrancing touch. Like a temptation without precedent, made of both ardor and renunciation. A pleasant immersion, a slow acting love potion.