Icy Bulwarks
Translated from the Spanish by Yvette Siegert
Every day, I come to watch you pass,
little steamer, magical and always distant. . .
Your eyes are a pair of blondish captains,
your lip a slip of kerchief, red and
bidding its blood goodbyes.
I will come to watch you pass—
drunk on time, on cruelty, you magical
little steamer, always distant—until that day
when the evening star takes leave.
The rigging, the traitor winds, the currents
from a woman who just walked past—
Then your cold captains will issue orders,
And the one to take leave will be me.
Bordas de Hielo
Vengo a verte pasar todos los días,
vaporcito encantado siempre lejos. . .
Tus ojos son dos rubios capitanes;
tu labio que ondea en un adios de sangre!
Vengo a verte pasar; hasta que un día,
embriagada de tiempo y de crueldad,
vaporcito encantado siempre lejos,
la estrella de la tarde partirá!
Las jarcias; vientos que traicionan; vientos
de mujer que pasó!
Tus fríos capitanes darán orden;
y quien habrá partido seré yo. . . !
From Los heraldos negros (Editorial Losada, S. A., 1918) by César Vallejo. Translated from the Spanish by Yvette Siegert. This poem is in the public domain.
César Vallejo
César Abraham Vallejo was born on March 16, 1892, and grew up in Santiago de Chuco, an isolated town in north central Peru. Vallejo’s grandmothers were Chimu people and both of his grandfathers were Spanish Catholic priests. He was the youngest of eleven children and grew up in a home saturated with religious devotion.