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)
