Metallic

dodecagono

To Divine Proportion

To you, amazing discipline,ratio: source of beauty without flaw,revering the rich life cloistered withinthe armored confines of your sacred law.To you, the retina’s beatific jail,golden section, squaring up to scale,mysterious wellspring of moderationthat gives rise to harmonious Creation.To you, ocean of angulated dreams,flower of the five regular forms,blue dodecahedron, sonorous arc.You spark a kindled compass with your wings.A clear sphere is the song your theorem sings.To you, divine proportion, gold from dark.
 
Translated from the Spanish by Carolyn L. Tipton

 

Rafael Alberti 
Poems of Exile