El Jardín de las Palabras Perdidas
(The Garden of Lost Words)
Carmen Delgado había decidido que aquel sería el último verano que pasaria en Granada.
Carmen Delgado had decided that this would be the last summer she would spend in Granada.
Llevaba demasiados años aferrada a una ciudad que le recordaba constantemente a Andres Navarro, el poeta que había desaparecido de su vida sin dejar más explicación que un poema garabateado en una servilleta de papel.
She had spent too many years clinging to a city that constantly reminded her of Andres Navarro, the poet who had disappeared from her life without leaving any explanation other than a poem scrawled on a paper napkin.
El poema hablaba de un jardín donde las palabras que nunca se pronuncian echan raices y florecen en silencio.
The poem spoke of a garden where the words that are never spoken take root and bloom in silence.
Carmen lo había guardado en su cartera durante doce años, doblado tantas veces que las letras apenas se distinguian.
Carmen had kept it in her wallet for twelve years, folded so many times that the letters could barely be made out.
Fue una tarde de junio cuando lo vio.
It was one June afternoon when she saw him.
Estaba sentado en un banco del Paseo de los Tristes, leyendo un libro con las gafas apoyadas en la punta de la nariz, exactamente como ella lo recordaba.
He was sitting on a bench on the Paseo de los Tristes, reading a book with his glasses resting on the tip of his nose, exactly as she remembered him.
El corazón se le detuvo.
Her heart stopped.
Habían pasado doce años y, sin embargo, habría reconocido aquellas manos en cualquier parte del mundo.
Twelve years had passed and yet she would have recognised those hands anywhere in the world.
Se quedo inmovil en la acera de enfrente, paralizada entre el impulso de cruzar la calle y el deseo de huir antes de que el levantara la vista.
She stood motionless on the pavement opposite, paralysed between the urge to cross the street and the desire to flee before he looked up.
Pero fue el quien la vio primero.
But it was he who saw her first.
Levantó los ojos del libro y la miró como si el tiempo no hubiera transcurrido, como si los doce años que se extendian entre ellos fueran apenas un parentesis que acabara de cerrarse. <<Carmen>>, dijo, y su nombre en aquella voz sono como una llave que abria una puerta que ella había creido sellada para siempre.
He raised his eyes from the book and looked at her as if time had not passed, as if the twelve years that stretched between them were merely a parenthesis that had just closed. <<Carmen,>> he said, and her name in that voice sounded like a key that opened a door she had believed sealed forever.
Se acercó lentamente, con el poema latiendo en el bolsillo como un segundo corazón.
She approached slowly, with the poem beating in her pocket like a second heart.
<<Crei que te habias marchado de Granada>>, dijo ella, y le sorprendio que su propia voz sonara tan serena cuando por dentro todo temblaba.
<<I thought you had left Granada,>> she said, and it surprised her that her own voice sounded so calm when inside everything was trembling.
Andres cerró el libro y se levantó. <<Me marche>>, respondió. <<Pero resulta que hay ciudades de las que uno no puede irse del todo, porque dejan algo plantado dentro de ti que sigue creciendo aunque no lo riegues.>> Carmen comprendio entonces que el también había cargado con su propio jardín de palabras perdidas.
Andres closed the book and stood up. <<I did leave,>> he replied. <<But it turns out there are cities you cannot fully leave, because they plant something inside you that keeps growing even if you do not water it.>> Carmen understood then that he too had carried his own garden of lost words.
Saco la servilleta del bolsillo y se la tendio.
She took the napkin from her pocket and held it out to him.
El la desdoblo con un cuidado reverencial, como si sostuviera algo vivo.
He unfolded it with a reverent care, as if he were holding something alive.
La leyó en voz baja y, al terminar, la miró con los ojos brillantes. <<Nunca deje de escribir sobre ese jardín>>, confeso. <<Solo que todos los poemas que vinieron después eran para ti, y tampoco supe enviarlos.>> Se quedaron de pie, frente a frente, mientras la tarde caia sobre los tejados de Granada y las palabras que ambos habían cultivado en secreto por fin encontraban la luz del sol.
He read it in a low voice and, upon finishing, he looked at her with shining eyes. <<I never stopped writing about that garden,>> he confessed. <<Only all the poems that came afterwards were for you, and I did not know how to send them either.>> They stood face to face while the afternoon fell over the rooftops of Granada and the words that they had both cultivated in secret finally found the sunlight.
Key Vocabulary
aferrarse to cling, to hold on tightly
garabatear to scrawl, to scribble
echar raices to take root, to put down roots
transcurrir to elapse, to pass (time)
el impulso the urge, the impulse
sellar to seal, to close off
confesar to confess, to admit
cultivar to cultivate, to nurture
reverencial reverent, full of reverence
el tejado the rooftop, the roof