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César Vallejo

            Avestruz

      Melancolía, saca tu dulce pico ya;
no cebes tus ayunos en mis trigos de luz.
Melancolía, basta! Cuál beben tus puñales
la sangre que extrajera mi sanguijuela azul!

      No acabes el maná de mujer que ha bajado;
yo quiero que de él nazca mañana alguna cruz,
mañana que no tenga yo a quien volver los ojos,
cuando abra su grand O de burla el ataúd.

      Mi corazón es tiesto regado de amargura;
hay otros viejos pájaros que pastan dentro de el....
Melancolía, deja de secarme la vida,
y desnuda tu labio de mujer....!



                              Ostrich

      Melancholia, pull out your sweet beak now;
don't fatten your fast on my wheat of light.
Melancholia, that's enough! Your daggers drink
the blood that my blue leech would draw out!

      Don't finish off the manna of fallen woman;
I want some cross born of it tomorrow, tomorrow
when I won't have anyone to turn my eyes toward,
when the coffin will open its great mocking O.

      My heart is a sherd, sprinkled with bitterness;
there are other old birds that graze within it...
Melancholia, quit drying up my life,
and bare your woman's lip...!




Copyright © 2003 César Vallejo and Rebecca Seiferle

About the poet & the translator.

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Issue #32, April, 2003 :
Santa Fe Poetry Broadside.