I have no idea what happened but now I am not the same

The not-happening was so sudden 

that I stayed there for ever, 

without knowing, without their knowing me, 

as if I were under a chair, 

as if I were lost in night— 

so was that which was not,

and so have I stayed for ever. 

I asked the others after, 

the women and the men, 

what they were doing with such confidence 

and how they learned their living; 

they did not actually answer,

they went on dancing and living. 

It is what has not happened to one

that determines the silence,

and I don't want to keep on speaking 

because I stayed there waiting; 

in that place and on that day 

I have no idea what happened

but now I am not the same. 

[Pablo Neruda {1904-1973} 'Loneliness', from Canto General XV—Yo Soy, in Selected Poems: A Bilingual Edition {Nathaniel Tarn, ed.}]