Miguel Márquez

(Venezuela, 1955)

Netherlands

I love Holland, its buzzing and dissident
ports. I love herrings;
the mouth of the Rhine; Leiden,
simple and supple like a willow;
a Rembrandt, with humbleness, reverent.
And that bliss of being, which is unnameable,
the landscape of Delft (the intimacy
of man with the angels).
But above everything, I love
the will to be upon the waters;
the affirmation, against destiny, of life.
And all that history of dikes, of drainages,
of winning from the sea a day of earth,
for me is so beautiful,
so full of sense on my lips,
that on seeing you today, girl
of luxuriant blonde hair and blue eyes,
I don’t know what to do with the abundance,
with my gratitude to a whole people
that has allowed me, gratia plena,
to know you.

Translated by Nicolás Suescún.