Pako Aristi - Eight poems

I was playing the bagpipes,

At a street parade in Azpeitia.

A girl came close to me,

Enticed by their melody.

She wished to listen to them up close,

so, she leaned her head towards me

Putting her ear onto my heart,

Right where the bagpipes meet the soul.

She listened to it intently,

Soothing with her beam my struggle for breath.

She asked would I show it to her.

Then kissed me goodbye and vanished in the crowd.

I have been dreaming of coming by her on the street,

at some bar, ever since.

Alas, I know her not.

She was dressed in a kantinera costume, hat and all;

Clothing she will seldom wear.

So, I keenly miss the sight of such gorgeousness

In my daily landscape.

For, twenty years I have marched at the parade,

Yet, only such heavenly sight seems to linger

In the confines of my memory.