Juan Ramón Jiménez ― “I Am Not I”

I am not I.
                 I am this one
walking beside me whom I do not see,
whom at times I manage to visit,
and whom at other times I forget;
who remains calm and silent while I talk,
and forgives, gently, when I hate,
who walks where I am not,
who will remain standing when I die.

Juan Ramón Jiménez, “‘I Am Not I’” from Lorca and Jiménez: Selected Poems (Beacon Press, 1973). Translation copyright © 1973 by Robert Bly.