Side of the sun

The animalist,
anti-bullfighting poem 
              
             par excellance:

the bulls are grand as the side of the sun 

and although they kill them for the stale crowds,

it is the bull that burns the fire,

and although there are cowardly bulls as

there are cowardly matadors and cowardly men,

generally the bull stands pure

and dies pure

untouched by symbols or cliques or false loves,

and when they drag him out

nothing has died

something has passed

and the eventual stench

is the world.

Charles Bukowski, Burning in Water Drowning in flame,

translation by Eduardo Iriarte Goñi,

Barcelona, La Poesía, señor hidalgo,
2004: p.72