Saturday, February 26, 2011

EARTH ~







CANTOS DE VIDA Y ESPERANZA / SONGS OF LOVE AND HOPE



IX.




Towers of God! Poets!

Heavenly lightning rods

withstanding severe tempests,

like unadorned crests,

like rustic peaks,

breakwaters of eternities!



Magical Hope announces the day

when on the rock of harmony

the perfidious siren will pass away.

You must have hope, let's still hope!



Keep hoping.

The bestial element takes comfort

in its hatred for sacred poetry,

hurling brickbats of every sort.



The insurrection from beneath

spreads to the upper class and elite.

The cannibal covets his piece of meat

with red gums and sharpened teeth.



Towers, place a smile on the pavilion.

In the face of that evil and that unease

place the lofty suggestion of a breeze

and the tranquility of sky and sea. . .





Rubén Darío
(1867-1916)

Songs of Life and Hope
translated by Will Derusha & Alberto Acereda
(Duke University Press 2004)