Juan Ramón Jiménez: "I Am Not I"

                                 I am not I.

                                                     I am this one

                                 walking beside me whom I do not see,

                                 whom at times I manage to visit,

                                 and whom at other times I forget;

                                 who remains calm and silent while I talk,

                                 and forgives, gently, when I hate,

                                 who walks where I am not,

                                 who will remain standing when I die.

"I Am Not I" by Juan Ramón Jiménez, from Lorca and Jimenez: Selected Poems. Translated from the Spanish by Robert Bly. © Beacon Press, 1973.

Image credit: Untitled painting in a series titled "I Am Not I," by Mark Horst (originally color).