Poems of Gustavo Adolfo Becquer, XXIV
Translated from the Spanish by Mason Carnes
Two blood-red tongues of fire
That, circling the same log,
Approach and as they kiss
Form but a single flame;
Two notes, plucked cunningly
Together from the lute,
That meet in space in sweet
Harmonious embrace;
Two waves that come to die
Together on the beach
And, as they’re breaking, crown
Themselves with silver crest;
Two sinuous curls of smoke
That rise from out the lake
And, as they meet there in
The sky, form one white cloud;
Two thoughts that equally
Gush out; two kisses blent;
Two echoes mingling e’er,—
Like these are our two souls!
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.