Musical Instrument

If the Arab musician
Plucks the lute strings
With an eagle quill
To awaken the notes,

What hand plucks 
With what bird’s quill
The wound in you
That awakens the word?

From Desolation of the Chimera by Luis Cernuda, translated by Stephen Kessler. Copyright © 2010 by Luis Cernuda and Stephen Kessler. Used by permission of White Pine Press. All rights reserved.