Octavio Paz (1914-1998) is considered one of the greatest poets of all time.

It is a long and silent street.

I walk in darkness and stumble and fall

and rise again and tread with blind feet

the mute stones and the dry leaves

and someone behind me also treads them:

if I stop, he stops;

if I run, he runs. I turn: nobody.

Everything is dark and without an exit,

and I keep turning corners

that always lead to the street

where no one waits for me or follows me,

where I follow a man who stumbles

and gets up and says when he sees me: nobody.

Header image:

Photograph of Octavio Paz. Source: nuevarevista.net