Lighthouse in the Night

The sky a black sphere,
the sea a black disk.

The lighthouse opens
its solar fan on the coast.

Spinning endlessly at night,
whom is it searching for

when the mortal heart
looks for me in my chest?

Look at the black rock
where it is nailed down.

A crow digs endlessly
but no longer bleeds.

Alfonsina Storni

Alfonsina Storni (1891-1938) was born in Sala Capriasca, Switzerland, of Italian-Swiss parents. She lived in Argentina from the age of four. After the death of her father, she held various jobs to help support her family, and worked as an actress, touring Argentina for a year. She received a teacher's diploma in 1910 and taught elementary school in San Juan, Argentina. During this year she published her first poems, and at the end of the school term, moved to Buenos Aires. In 1912 her illegitimate son was born. She supported herself and her son in Buenos Aires as a journalist and held teaching positions in state schools. She was awarded various prized and in 1923 was named professor of literature at the Normal School of Modern Languages.

In 1935 she underwent cancer surgery for a breast tumor. In 1938 the cancer recurred and on October 25 Alfonsina Storni drowned herself in the ocean at Mar del Plata.

Mimi