Poems of Gustavo Adolfo Becquer, XVI
Translated from the Spanish by Mason Carnes
If, when the bell-flow’rs on your balcony
All trembling line,
You think it is the sighing, murmuring wind
That passes by,
Know that, hidden among the green leaves there,
For you I sigh.
If, when behind you echoing on your ear
Vague murmurs fall,
You think some far-off voice has called you, know
That from the pall
Of evening shadows that surround you, love,
To you I call.
If in the dead of night your timorous heart
Beats fast, while near
Your lips you feel a passionate, burning breath,
Ah! have no fear.
Know that, although invisible, I breathe
Beside you, dear.
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.