Tuesday, February 28, 2006

The Loveliest Sad Poem Ever!

                                                                                               Gustav Klimt- The Kiss

"For one human being to love another; that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation."                                                                                  -Rainer Maria Rilke

Veinte poemas de amor y una
canción desesperada
 

Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche.

Escribir, por ejemplo: "La noche está estrellada,
y tiritan, azules, los astros, a lo lejos".

El viento de la noche gira en el cielo y canta.

Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche.
Yo la quise, y a veces ella también me quiso.

En las noches como ésta la tuve entre mis brazos.
La besé tantas veces bajo el cielo infinito.

Ella me quiso, a veces yo también la quería.
Cómo no haber amado sus grandes ojos fijos.

Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche.
Pensar que no la tengo. Sentir que la he perdido.

Oir la noche inmensa, más inmensa sin ella.
Y el verso cae al alma como al pasto el rocío.

Qué importa que mi amor no pudiera guardarla.
La noche está estrellada y ella no está conmigo.

Eso es todo. A lo lejos alguien canta. A lo lejos.
Mi alma no se contenta con haberla perdido.

Como para acercarla mi mirada la busca.
Mi corazón la busca, y ella no está conmigo.

La misma noche que hace blanquear los mismos árboles.
Nosotros, los de entonces, ya no somos los mismos.

Ya no la quiero, es cierto, pero cuánto la quise.
Mi voz buscaba el viento para tocar su oído.

De otro. Será de otro. Como antes de mis besos.
Su voz, su cuerpo claro. Sus ojos infinitos.

Ya no la quiero, es cierto, pero tal vez la quiero.
Es tan corto el amor, y es tan largo el olvido.

Porque en noches como ésta la tuve entre mis brazos,
mi alma no se contenta con haberla perdido.

Aunque éste sea el último dolor que ella me causa,
y éstos sean los últimos versos que yo le escribo. 

(English Translation)

Twenty Love Poems and a
Song of Despair

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

Write for example, 'The night is shattered
and the blue stars shiver in the distance.'

The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.

Through nights like this one I held her in my arms.
I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.

She loved me, sometimes I loved her too.
How could one not have loved her great still eyes.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her.

To hear immense night, still more immense without her.
And the verse falls to the soul like dew to a pasture.

What does it matter that my love could not keep her.
The night is shattered and she is not with me.

This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the distance.
My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

My sight searches for her as though to go to her.
My heart looks for her, and she is not with me.

The same night whitening the same trees.
We, of that time, are no longer the same.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but how I loved her.
My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.

Another's. She will be another's. Like my kisses before.
Her voice. Her bright body. Her infinite eyes.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but maybe I love her.
Love is short, forgetting is so long.

Because through nights like this one I held her in my arms
my soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer
and these the last verses that I write for her.

   

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

glad you posted in english I know a guy how just divorced his wife he loved her but could not take her cheatingthe second time!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

glad you posted in english I know a guy how just divorced his wife he loved her but could not take her cheatingthe second time!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

BESIDES THAT BEING A STUNNING LOVE PICTURE, YOU ARE SO TALENTED, YOU SPEAK SPANISH AND ENGLISH!! THE POEM WAS SOULFUL, SWEET AND BROUGHT TEARS TO MY EYES....ROBERTA

Anonymous said...

Touching.  I panicked briefly before I saw the translation!  Silly me!

Tammy
http://LifeLiveItOrMissOut.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

Lovely poem  sad and mournful - brough a lump to my throat...Ally

Anonymous said...

Stopping by to say hello, hope you have a wonderful wkend! Beautiful poem. Thanks for coming by my journal earlier in the week!
Blessings,
SUGAR
http://journals.aol.com/sugarsweet056/SUGARSLIFE/
http://journals.aol.com/sugarsweet056/MYBELOVEDFURRBABIES/

Anonymous said...

"I no longer love her, that's certain, but how I loved her."  That about sums it up.  Thanks Dee for all the kind words.  ~ Mike

Anonymous said...

Wonderful poem, glad you put the translation on!

http://journals.aol.co.uk/jeanno43/JeannettesJottings/