Nightfall in the Tropics

^{translated from the Spanish by Thomas Walsh}

There is twilight grey and gloomy
    Where the sea its velvet trails;
Out across the heavens roomy
    Draw the veils.

Bitter and sonorous rises
    The complaint from out the deeps,
And the wave the wind surprises
    Weeps.

Viols there amid the gloaming
    Hail the sun that dies,
And the white spray in its foaming
    “Miserere” sighs.

Harmony the heavens embraces,
    And the breeze is lifting free
To the chanting of the races
    Of the sea.

Clarions of horizons calling
    Strike a symphony most rare,
As if mountain voices calling
    Vibrate there.

As though dread, unseen, were walking,
    As though awesome echoes bore
On the distant breeze’s quaking
    The lion’s roar.