1.

The horse asked for fresh linens, 
curled like galloping rapids running, 
the crash of white spume, pale sheets.
 
I want to be a man for one night— 
call me at the little hours.
She didn’t call him then at all
(he never returned to the quarter that morning.)       

2.

The dove was wrong.
She was wrong.
To go North, she went South.
She believed wheat was water.
She was wrong, she believed 

Great Neptune, the stars,
the green night, the morning.
She was wrong.

That the stars were morning dew;
That the heat was snowfall.
She was wrong.
That your skirt was your blouse,
your heart, your home,
she was wrong.
(She fell to sleep on the levee.
You perched on an olive branch.) 

3.

At dawn, astonished, the rooster.
His echo returned
a young man’s voice
and virile signs were found 
within by the bird.
The rooster was ecstatic!  
With eyes of love and vigor,
he leapt flat-footed into an orange tree!

From the orange tree, to a lemon grove;
from the lemons, to a patio;
from the patio, the able rooster jumped 
into a bedroom,
and the woman who slept there
embraced him unabashedly,
where the rooster was astonished!

Author: Rafael Alberti
Translator: Manny Grimaldi