Poems from Libro de Poemas

"Mañana", dated Fuente Vaqueros,7 August 1918 (extract)

Mas la canción del agua

es una cosa eterna.

 

Ella es luz hecha canto

de ilusiones románticos.

Ella es firme y suave,

llena de cielo y mansa.

Ella es niebla y es rosa

de la eterna mañana.

Miel de luna que fluye

de estrellas enterradas.

¿Qué es el santo bautismo

sino Dios hecho agua

que no unge las frentes

con su sangre de gracia?

 

Por algo Jesucristo

en ella confirmóse.

 

Por algo las estrellas

en sus ondas descansan.

Por algo madre Venus

en su seno engendróse,

que amor de amor tomamos

cuando bebemos agua.

(...)

Cristo debió decirnos:

"Confesáos con el agua,

de todos los dolores, de todas las infamias.

¿A quién mejor, hermanos,

entregar nuestras ansias

que a ella que sube al cielo

en envolturas blancas?"

 

But the song of water

is an eternal thing.

 

It is light turned into song

of romantic illusions.

It is firm and soft,

mild and full of heaven.

It is mist and it is rose

of the eternal morning.

Honey of the moon which flows

from buried stars.

 

What is the holy baptism

but God turned into water

to anoint our foreheads

with the blood of his mercy?

 

For some good reason Jesus

was confirmed in water.

 

For some good reason the stars

repose upon its waves.

For some good reason Venus

in its breast was engendered.

 

 

(...)

 

 Christ must have said to us:

"To what better, my brothers,

can we confide our sorrows

than to that which rises up to heaven,

arrayed in a spiral of whiteness?"

 

 

"In memoriam" dated August 1920 (extract).

Dulce chopo,

dulce chopo,

te has puesto

de oro.

 

Ayer estabas verde,

un verde loco

de pájaros

gloriosos.

 

Hoy estás abatido

bajo el cielo de agosto

como yo bajo el cielo

de mi espíritu rojo

(...)

Sweet poplar,

sweet poplar,

you have turned

to gold.

 

Yesterday you were green,

a green mad

with glorious

birds.

 

Today you are dejected

beneath the August sky

as I am beneath the sky

of my red passion

(...)

 

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