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John Reid
Both reviled and ignored in her lifetime, because she -- a woman -- dared to defy the literary establishment, Rosalia de Castro has now supplanted all the men and women (including Queen Isabella) who treated her with scorn.
Rosalia de Castro
Selected Poems
rendered into English verse
Regarded by many as Spain's greatest poet, Rosalia de Castro (1837-1885) is honored in this 118-page book which contains thirty of her best and most famous poems rendered into English verse by John Howard Reid.
22 of Rosalia's most acclaimed works are also presented in their original Castilian so that interested readers can compare de Castro's highly charged thoughts and phrases with Reid's interpretations.
It is hoped that Rosalia's unique vision, her firmly feminist outlook and her startling modernity have been well served.
Most of the poems in this anthology have been selected from her last but most important collection, "On the Banks of the River Sar" (1884), published shortly before her death.
A few poems have been taken from previous anthologies, "La Flor" (1857) and "A mi madre" (1863).
This new collection includes both long poems such as "The Banks of the River Sar", "Saint Scholastica", "The Oak Trees", and "To the Moon", as well as equally famous short pieces: "Angel", "The Bells", "Daydreaming", "The Two Doves", "Pursued by the Lark", "A Disappointment", "They Say That Plants Can't Speak", etc.
Excerpt
NOTE: All Rosalia's poems in this book are centered, but that effect cannot be achieved in this space at AuthorsDen.
THE TWO DOVES
rendered from the Spanish of
Rosalía de Castro
I saw two doves flying in the sky
when suddenly their wings touched
and they were momentarily joined together...
A light touch it’s true, perhaps by magic,
but the two trembled. They were shaken,
and a sweet charm, brief but indefinable,
infused their souls.
Suddenly their two single flights
became twisted into one,
and they were happily rocked in the wind
like a swan on the waves.
Joined together, they flew tenderly attached.
To their pleasure, a visionary world opened,
and a more totally captivating environment.
At last, at the end of their flight,
they jointly find their nest
in a soft bed of lilies and roses,
where they sleep together,
free and white, like butterflies.
At dawn, they raise their beaks together,
and in the shining light of the new day,
their loving caresses make a bright,
cheerful parasol over their nest.
In clouds of gold and sapphire,
they row a rolling ship
in a tranquil sea,
and coo gently
in the day’s
cool breeze.
Together the two exchange
the honey in their beaks.
And thus their days were capped
in these living, unfading flowers,
and bitter disappointments never
disturbed their delights.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Happy those peaceful birds flying free
enjoying the expanse and purity
of a virginal atmosphere!
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