Volver a los diecisiete [English translation]

To go back to being seventeen

After living a century

Is like deciphering signs

Without being a competent wise man.

To go back to be suddenly

As fragile as a second,

To feel once again, deeply

Like a kid facing God,

That's what I feel

In this fertile instant.

It tangles, tangles,

Like the ivy on the wall,

And it springs, springs,

Like the moss on the stones,

Ah, yes yes yes.

My pushed back steps,

When all of yours go fowards;

The arc of the alliances

Broke into my nest

With all its colors,

It went around my veins

And even the hard chains

With what destiny ties us

Is like a thin diamond

That illuminates my calm soul.

What the feeling can do,

The knowing never could,

Not even the clearer proceeding

Neither the widest thought.

Everithing is changed by the moment

Like a condescent magician,

It sweetly take us away

From resentment and violence:

Only love with it's science

Turns us so innocent.

Love is a whirlwind

Of original sheer;

Even the wildest animal

Whispers its sweet croon,

It stops the pilgrims,

Frees the prisoners;

Love with all it's care

Turns an old man into a child

And to the evil ones, only affection

Turns them pure and honest.

Wide, the window

opened, as if bewitched,

Love came in with it's robe

Like a warm morning;

To the rythm of it's beautiful target

It made the jasmine sprout,

Flying like a seraph,

It put earrings to the sky

And my years into seventeen

The cherub turned them.

• Artist:Mercedes Sosa