All things pass and all things remain
but our task is to pass through,
to pass through making roads,
roads out over the sea.
translated by Mary G. Berg & Dennis Maloney
Spanish poet
poem by Antonio Machado
The best of the good people
know that in this life
it’s all a question of proportion;
a little more, a little less . . .
translated by Mary G Berg & Dennis Maloney
A Divine Falling of Leaves by César Vallejo
Moon: royal crown of an enormous head,
dropping leaves into yellow shadows as you go.
Red crown of a Jesus who broods
tragically, softly over emeralds!
Moon: reckless heart in heaven,
why do you row toward the west
in that cup filled with blue wine,
whose hull is defeated and sad?
Moon: it is no use flying away,
so you go up in a flame of scattered opals:
maybe you are my heart, who is like a gypsy,
who loafs in the sky, shedding poems like tears ! . . .
translated by James Wright
Sky by Juan Ramon Jimenez
I had forgotten you,
sky, and you were nothing
more than a vague existence of light,
even without name,
by my weary, lazy eyes.
And you would appear, among the idle
discouraged words of the traveler,
like a series of tiny lagoons
seen in a watery landscape of dreams . . .
Today I gazed at you slowly,
and you are rising as high as your name.
translated by Dennis Maloney & Clark Zlotchew
On the City Ramparts of Cadiz by Juan Ramon Jimenez
The sea is enormous,
just as everything is,
yet is seems to me I am still with you.
Soon only water will separate us,
water, restlessly shifting,
water, only water!
translated by James Wright
The Poem by Juan Ramon Jimenez
I pulled out the plant by the roots
still dripping with the dew
of early morning.
How it watered the earth
fragrant and moist.
What rain! What blindness of stars
in my face and eyes!
translated by Dennis Maloney
Antonio Machado on things no good at sea
Mankind owns four things
that are no good at sea:
rudder, anchor, oars,
and the fear of going down.
translsated by Robert Bly
from The Anger That Breaks A Man Down Into Boys by Cesar Vallejo
The anger that breaks the soul down into bodies,
the body down into different organs,
and the organ into reverberating octaves of thought;
the anger of the poor
owns one deep fire against two craters.
translated by Robert Bly
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
Leonard Durso 