Читать книгу Cattle of the Lord - Rosa Elise Branco - Страница 19

THE DOG THAT HAD ME

I had a dog or rather he

had me and left me free,

guided without knowing it.

He took on my injuries,

whatever sorrows I might have had,

and suffered them as I had never suffered.

He confounded my ills, turned things around.

He put my collar round his neck

and took me for a walk

as if I were his owner.

At night he slept down on the floor

or else pretended to. I would awake

with a servant at my feet,

and hold myself just like a master,

while it was really he who had me.

Peerless he was in silence

and in the use of arms

with which he would defend me

from others and from myself, as well:

the swift line of glistening fur,

the quivering of the tongue,

the muzzle flexed for listening.

It was a dog who had me

and on a summer afternoon

I threw him a delicious bone

then dropped him at the pound.