En una noche oscura,
con ansias en amores inflamada
¡oh dichosa ventura!
salí sin ser notada,
estando ya mi casa sosegada.
With Alma largely leaving her triplets to their own devices now that they were twenty years old, Bruno found more time to be with Aya. He would go to her hut at night when his family thought he would be in his room.
En la noche dichosa,
en secreto, que nadie me veía,
ni yo miraba cosa,
sin otra luz y guía
sino la que en el corazón ardía.
One evening, while sharing a slice of tres leches de arequipe, Bruno brought up a topic that Aya and he needed to talk about.
"Julieta and Pepa are pursuing long-term relationships with their novios, and we all see marriage on the horizon," Bruno said, his heart pounding. He had rehearsed this conversation in his head before.
Aya looked almost as nervous as he was; it showed in her smile. "What do you see for yourself?"
Suddenly the cake tasted a little less sweet. "I would like a future with you," he said carefully. He looked fearfully at Aya; she was not going to like what he would say next. "But I had a vision that it would be a bad idea to marry you."
"It's because I can't give you children, isn't it?" said Aya sadly.
This came as a surprise to Bruno. "Actually, that's not— H-How did you know that?"
Aya bowed her head, staring at the cake crumbs on the saucer. "I've never bled. All of my sisters started bleeding at about eleven or twelve. I'm twenty now, and it still hasn't happened for me."
Bruno held Aya's free hand and kissed her knuckles. "It's a good thing that I love you for you."
Aya lifted her face. "Really?"
Bruno kissed her lips. "I would like to still marry you even if we never have kids. And those kids from my visions—none of them are mine—will be mine."
"And you're okay with that?"
"I can be, as long as you are going to be okay."
Their eyes met. A new fear radiated from Aya. "What do you mean? Why would I not be okay?"
Frowning, Bruno reached for the mochila at his feet. "It's better that I show you so that you know I'm not making this up to avoid marrying you, because I really want to. I really want you." He handed her the greenish glass tablet showing the dreaded vision. Aya tilted the tablet to one side and saw it. She gasped and nearly dropped the tablet onto the table had Bruno not caught it.
"I'm sorry, Aya." Bruno quickly put the tablet back in his mochila. He reached out but suddenly became afraid to touch her. Aya started crying.
Looking away, Bruno waited for Aya to scream at him and order him to leave. To his surprise, Aya grabbed his hands. "I still want you, Bruno. Stay! Don't let this be the end of us!" she cried.
Quedé y olvidéme,
el rostro recliné sobre el amado;
cesó todo, y dejéme,
dejando mi cuidado
entre las azucenas olvidado.
"Sigo aquí," Bruno whispered as he drew Aya into his arms and wiped her tears. Aya held on to him as if he would disappear if she let go.
There was a time when Bruno couldn't understand why Aya loved him. But as they kissed, that uncertainty became meaningless. Love was pure and self-sustaining. It put their broken hearts together and made them whole that way.
Su cabeza es oro puro con los cabellos rizados y más negros que los cuervos.
Aya tangled her fingers into his hair as she tasted traces of arequipe on him. She had to break away when Bruno took off his ruana. Aya smelled sand and salt. Their lips came together again as soon as the barrier was gone. Aya's hands urgently unbuttoned Bruno's shirt without breaking the kiss.
Vuelve, vuelve, Sulamita; vuelve, vuelve, que te veamos.
Bruno's hands reached behind Aya to unbutton her dress, which fell away and joined Bruno's ruana and shirt on the floor. She pushed him onto the bed and undid his pants while he loosened her muslin camisole and bloomers.
Tu paladar es como vino bueno que me baja suavemente, remojando los labios y los dientes.
There was a time when Bruno didn't think that a woman would let him touch her this way—or that a woman would touch him at all, for that matter. For someone who could see the future, Bruno managed to still be surprised by some things—like how smooth Aya's thighs were—or how soft her breasts were—or how exquisite her sex was—or how her noises somehow excited him even more.
Yo pertenezco a mi amor que siente pasión por mí.
Aya mewled against Bruno's throat when he grasped the back of her neck, his fingertips nudging the soft spot where her skull and her spine connected. Her left arm wrapped around his back while her right hand was holding a fistful of his curls. Clinging to each other, their sorrow from moments ago was forgotten as they rode into ecstasy.
They stayed in each other's arms after they finished. Their hearts beat against each other as if in a duel. What they had in the present banished any fear of what the future would bring.
The first three verses are taken from "La Noche Oscura del Alma" ("The Dark Night of the Soul") by San Juan de la Cruz (Saint John of the Cross); English translation set to song by Loreena McKennitt here: watch?v=fzHeT-Go4Zg
The other four are from the Song of Solomon (Song of Songs). I would have just written all of it in English, but Spanish is just too beautiful.
Translations:
Your head is pure gold with hair curly and blacker than ravens.
Return, return, O Shulamite: return, return that we may behold thee.
Your kisses like the best wine that goes down smoothly, gliding over lips and teeth.
I am my beloved's, and his desire is for me.
