Valencia

Diaphanous illumination of the air
Suffusing blue-tiled steeples and cupolas,
Mutable and melodious upon the lagoon…

At the Torres de Serranos, looking east along the river
I imagine the vanished Gate of El Cid,
Through which the champion's corpse, decked out
In warrior’s panoply and propped up in the saddle
On his favourite horse Babieca,
Led the attack on the Moorish besiegers
Who had taken courage from rumours of his death.

Land of gunpowder and fire,
Of pyrotechnic fanfares in the orange-and-lemon sky,
O ecstasies of cacophony ! fiestas of folly !
Translucent reptiles on the water,
Our Masonic minds construct irradiant jokes.
I am the sea’s Caliph, building mosques of light…
White orange blossom bliss of firework-bursts,
The bull-horned earth is rising, shouldering up
And running the sky’s gauntlet,
Flamingo-winged words fan out of our mouths,
Migrating to the sun’s black heart.
Burning on spring’s pyre,
Carpenter nailing my madness to the sky’s cross,
I stagger through the crowds of Las Fallas,
Among swirling freaks and giants,
Stuffing my face with paella,
And the dragon queen on her balcony surveys the city
With Catherine wheel eyes…
O, see the giants burning after dark,
Disintegrating into ashes…

Angels and devils battle in the streets,
Throwing fireballs from their fingertips,
Fiery lizards and snakes fly through the air,
The heart runs like a bewildered bull,
Taunted and bewildered on all sides.

City of black arts and occult sciences,
Planetarium-cinema of the starburst eye,
Crystal humpback whale voyaging through the sky !
In the Capilla del Santo Càliz, in the Cathedral,
Stands the Holy Grail, or another pretender.

Blue Virgin with a robe of water,
Why do you lead me into the bullring
To face the dazzling matador ?
I must wash my feet in the ocean,
And cast my sins into the fire…