(no subject)

[mamculuna]

Briefly: I'm doing lots of great things, including going to The Lion King (with wonderful Julie Taymor masks and puppets) and to Howl's Moving Castle, both of which I loved. And an incredible meal at Russian Tea Time with many delicious kinds of finely chopped vegetable salads and spicy lamb, and coriander flavored vodka. And an all-weekend yoga workshop that pushed me way beyond where I ever thought I could go, in mind and body. Here's a poem I heard there:

Last Night, As I Was Sleeping

by Antonio Machado

Last night, as I was sleeping,
I dreamt--marvellous error!--
that a spring was breaking
out in my heart
I said: Along which secret aqueduct,
Oh water, are you coming to me,
water of a new life
that I have never drunk?

Last night, as I was sleeping,
I dreamt--marvellous error!--
that I had a beehive
here inside my heart.
And the golden bees
were making white combs
and sweet honey
from my old failures.

Last night, as I was sleeping,
I dreamt--marvellous error!--
that a fiery sun was giving
light inside my heart.
It was fiery because I felt
warmth as from a hearth,
and sun because it gave light
and brought tears to my eyes.

Last night, as I slept,
I dreamt--marvellous error!--
that it was God I had
here inside my heart.

--translated by Robert Bly





Anoche cuando dormía


Anoche cuando dormía
soñé ¡bendita ilusión!
que una fontana fluía
dentro de mi corazón.
Dí: ¿por qué acequia escondida,
agua, vienes hasta mí,
manantial de nueva vida
en donde nunca bebí?

Anoche cuando dormía
soñé ¡bendita ilusión!
que una colmena tenía
dentro de mi corazón;
y las doradas abejas
iban fabricando en él,
con las amarguras viejas,
blanca cera y dulce miel.


Anoche cuando dormía
soñé ¡bendita ilusión!
que un ardiente sol lucía
dentro de mi corazón.
Era ardiente porque daba
calores de rojo hogar,
y era sol porque alumbraba
y porque hacía llorar.


Anoche cuando dormía
soñé ¡bendita ilusión!
que era Dios lo que tenía
dentro de mi corazón.



Antonio Machado

Comments

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

That's a seriously lovely poem.

[altaego.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the poem.

that's 1 of my favorite poems!

[anomster.livejournal.com]

I posted just the other day in Sara's LJ that Machado was my favorite poet. That poem's beautiful, although I can't say much for Bly's translation. I don't understand why some translators go out of their way to avoid literal translations in cases when they're actually better. Why would anyone translate "bendito" as "marvelous" when it means "blessed"? And "I said" is outright wrong for "Di"; it means "Say" or "Tell"--Machado is asking the water to tell him in the poem, not saying that he did. Sorry--bit of a rant there. At least he didn't try to make it rhyme in English.

My favorite poem is Machado's "Fantasia de una noche de abril" ("Fantasy of an April night"), which is way too long to put here. It has the poet wandering the back streets of a Moorish city in Spain, slightly drunk, & fantasizing being back in Moorish times.

But he has a lot of shorter ones. One of my favorites is this one:

Dijiste media verdad?
Diran que mentiste dos veces
Si dices la otra mitad.

Did you tell a half-truth?
They'll say that you lied two times
If you tell the other half.

And BTW, hi, Jane! Belated happy birthday!