Or you’ll want to accompany old age
to unplug the tap of dusk,
so that all the water slipping away by night
surges during the day.
translated by Clayton Eshleman
20th Century Spanish poetry
from poem XXXIII in Trilce by Cesar Vallejo
It will not be what is yet to come, but
that which came and already left,
but that which came and already left.
translated by Clayton Eshleman
from A dream of trains by Pablo Neruda
I was alone in the solitary train,
but not only was I alone–
a host of solitudes were gathered
around the hope of the journey,
like peasants on the platforms.
And I, in the train, like stale smoke,
with so many shiftless souls,
burdened by so many deaths,
felt myself lost on a journey
in which nothing was moving
but my exhausted heart.
translated by Alastair Reid
I Pulled On The Reins by Juan Ramon Jimenez
I pulled on the reins,
I turned the horse
of the dawn,
and I came in to life, pale.
Oh how they looked at me,
the flowers of my dreams,
insane,
lifting their arms to the moon!
translated by Robert Bly
Music by Juan Ramon Jimenez
Music–
a naked woman
running mad through the pure night!
translated by Robert Bly
Is my soul asleep? by Antonio Machado
Is my soul asleep?
Have those beehives that work
in the night stopped? And the water-
wheel of thought, is it
going around now, cups
empty, carrying only shadows?
No, my soul is not asleep.
It is awake, wide awake.
It neither sleeps nor dreams, but watches,
its eyes wide open
far-off things, and listens
at the shores of the great silence.
translated by Robert Bly
another from Proverbs and Folksongs by Antonio Machado
Light of the soul, divine light,
beacon, torch, star, sun. . .
A man gropes his way along
carrying a lamp on his back.
translated by Mary G. Berg & Dennis Maloney
It’s Possible That While We Were Dreaming by Antonio Machado
It’s possible that while we were dreaming
the hand that casts out the stars like seeds
started up the ancient music once more
–like a note from a great harp–
and the frail wave came to our lips
in the form of one or two honest words.
translated by Robert Bly
and again Antonio Machado
You say nothing is created new?
Don’t worry about it, with the mud
of the earth, make a cup
from which your brother can drink.
translated by Robert Bly
Antonio Machado again
Beyond living and dreaming
there is something more important:
waking up.
translated by Robert Bly
Leonard Durso 