I took off petal after petal
(Birkendene, Caldwell. Fabruary, 20th)
I took off petal after petal,
as if you were a rose,
in order to see your soul,
and I didn't see it.
However, everything around
—horizons of fields and oceans—
everything, even what was infinite,
was filled with a perfume,
immense and living.
Juan Ramón Jiménez
Translation by Robert Bly