Sacred Unleaving

Translated from the Spanish by Yvette Siegert

Oh moon, you crown of an enormous head
thinning in shadowy goldenness!
You crimson crown of a Jesus who thinks
of emeralds with a tragic sweetness.

Oh moon, you crazy heart of the sky,
why row on like this, in the blue wine
of the goblet, and ever westward,
with such a vanquished, aching stern?

Oh moon, by flying away in vain like this,
you obliviate into a spatter of opals;
perhaps you are my gypsy heart, which wails
its verses while wandering out in the blue.

 


 

Deshojación sagrada

 

Luna! Corona de una testa inmensa,
que te vas deshojando en sombras gualdas!
Roja corona de un Jesús que piensa
trágicamente dulce de esmeraldas!

Luna! Alocado corazón celeste
¿por qué bogas así, dentro la copa
llena de vino azul, hacia el oeste,
cual derrotada y dolorida popa?

Luna! Y a fuerza de volar en vano,
te holocaustas en ópalos dispersos:
tú eres tal vez mi corazón gitano
que vaga en el azul llorando versos! . . . 

Credit

From Los heraldos negros (Editorial Losada, S. A., 1918) by César Vallejo. Translated from the Spanish by Yvette Siegert. This poem is in the public domain.

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