428
PARTISAN REVIEW
like to keep you here forever, I know that's not possible. You have to
go on living your life to fulfill a great destiny. You must see the
comet. Right away, when Luis looks at me, I make my eyes move so
he understands I am tired and want him to put me to bed. But first
I'll do one thing: I'll indicate to him that I want you yourself to take
me. It wili be like giving you back the kiss you've given me.
Luis understood the sign for changing places perfectly, but he
had a little difficulty capturing my desire that you move me. You
smile with a flash of your mother in your eyes and lift me in your
arms. Now my cup is filled to overflowing, every hope ended. As if
you were my father, I feel like a child again, needing affection.
Now I'd like you to go as quickly as possible. At once they'll
have to relieve me, wash and prepare me for supper, and I don't
want you
to
experience these things. I'll give Luis instructions to
hand on to you my drum, which earned me my living. Lately, I've
been quite doubled up. I don't want you to carry away a painful im–
age of your father. I know I'm not worthy of you, but I don't want
your memory of me to be more disagreeable than my condition. I
would like you, in the many years you have left to live, to remember
me as a man who could talk to you with precision about comets and
the movement of the stars.
Translated from the Spanish
by
H.E. Francis
