The Syllable | A poem by Eugenio de Andrade, 1923-2005

All morning I was searching for a syllable.
It’s very little, that’s for sure: a vowel,
a consonant, practically nothing.
But I feel its absence. Only I know
how much I miss it.
That’s why I searched for it so stubbornly.
Only it could shield me from
January cold, the drought
of summer. A syllable.
A single syllable.
Salvation.

Eugenio de Andrade, The Syllable