To a woman who stepped on a jasmine flower

A translation into English of A una señora que pisó una flor de jazmín, a décima by María Egual. Translation by Kika Londoño and W. F. Carr.

To be the wreckage of your feet

the jasmine flow’r is quite content.

What a fortuitous event

that it be lifted from the street.

And having met this fate most sweet,

its beauty differs from before;

in order to have life restored

it awaits the stamp of your heels,

because from all your footprint seals

sweet flowers will spring forth once more.