When, With You Asleep

When, with you asleep, I plunge into your soul,
and I listen, with my ear
on your naked breast,
to your tranquil heart, it seems to me
that, in its deep throbbing, I surprise
the secret of the center
of the world.

It seems to me
that legions of angels
on celestial steeds
— as when, in the height
of the night we listen, without a breath
and our ears to the earth,
to distant hoofbeats that never arrive —,
that legions of angels
are coming through you, from afar
— like the Three Kings
to the eternal birth
of our love —,
they are coming through you, from afar,
to bring me, in your dreams,
the secret of the center
of the heavens.

-- Juan Ramón Jiménez
Translated by Perry Higman