Poems of Gustavo Adolfo Becquer LXVI

1836 –

1870

^{Translated from the Spanish by Mason Carnes}

At the flash of a light we are born; we are dead
Ere its splendor refulgent is sped,–—
Life is so short!
For glory and love that we ardently court
Are but shades of a dream that floats by;—
To awake is to die!

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, 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.

About Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer

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