Poems of Gustavo Adolfo Becquer, L
Translated from the Spanish by Mason Carnes
O waves gigantic that roaring break
And hurt yourselves on a desert strand,
Wrapt in a sheet of the foam you make
Drag me below with you, bear me on high.
O hurricane, driving with whips of wind
The faded leaves from the forest grand,
Dragged along by the whirlwind blind
Goad me to go with you, prone as I lie.
O clouds of the tempest, by light’ning kiss’d,
Your edges shot with the fire of its love,
Whirled long in the sombre mist
Bear me away with you, bear me above.
O bear me away with you, bear me away
Where frenzied with vertigo mad I may slay
My reason and memory, for I fear
To be left all alone with my sorrow here.
From Poems of Gustavo Adolfo Becquer (Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., Ltd., 1891) by Gustavo Adolfo Becquer. Translated from the Spanish by Mason Carnes. This poem is in the public domain.
Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer
Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, a Romantic lyric poet who is regarded as one of the first modern Spanish poets, was born on February 17, 1836, in Seville, Spain. He was one of eight children born to Joaquina Bastida y Vargas and the painter José Domínguez Bécquer, who adopted the Bécquer surname as an acknowledgement of his family’s Flemish ancestors. The elder Bécquer died in 1841, and his wife passed away in 1847.