Hands - “How from between my hands you slip away”
Francisco de Quevedo wonders, “How from between my hands you slip away.” The hands represent Quevedo’s jurisdiction. He cannot grasp the years of his life for they are impenetrable and beyond his domination.
Flow - “How from between my hands you slip away”
Francisco de Quevedo wonders , “Oh how you flow away, my years, my life.” The flow of characterizes time as a fluid feature that glides slickly in a way that cannot warrant its tangibility. Accordingly, Quevedo must submit to the generosity the overpowering years.
Muted Steps - “How from between my hands you slip away”
Francisco de Quevedo observes, “What muted steps you take, O frigid death,” The hushed nature of death’s strides signifies the fickleness of death. It is gruelling for humans to discern the oncoming death for its paces are restrained by silence.
Death - “All these are swept away in one brief year”
Francisco de Quevedo alludes to death when her writes, “Before the foot knows how to walk, it moves/along the road to death, whereto I send/my obscure life, a poor and turbid river,/which towering waves of a black sea then drink up./ The immateriality of a human’s being caps in death. The black sea, which is a shadowy as death, gulps the ‘ turbid river’ in the same way that death engulfs human
Love - "Love constant beyond death"
Love is a representation of unfaltering fortitude. Francisco de Quevedo elucidates, “Its body forsaken, still it takes no care/though it be turned to cinders, still retains feeling –/though turned to dust, it still remains in love.” The conversion of body into dust does not sway the dependability of love. Love is an autonomous dynamic that does not count on transience.
