LA ENCINA
SOLITARIA
Está en
una
colina,
la
rodean
rocas, retamas, tierra
donde el
árbol
arraiga
y parece
que
apenas
se
sostiene.
Me la
mostró
mi
padre
cuando,
niño,
paseaba con
él
entre
los
canchos.
Desde entonces retengo su
presencia
con la
necesidad
de
lo
que
dura.
Desde lo
alto,
observa
la
ciudad.
Es lo
primero
que
distingo
al
volver.
Lo último
que
miro
cuando
salgo
de las
murallas
de
este
microcosmos.
Es algo
más
que
una
vetusta
encina.
Sola, en
su
altura,
sosegada,
es
cifra
de la
vida
a
que
aspira
quien
resiste.
THAT LONE HOLM OAK
On a hill, sorrounded
by stones, brooms, ground
where trees take their roots,
it can hardly keep in balance.
My father showed it to me when, as a child,
we strolled along the countryside.
From then on, I preserve its shape
and that helps me to endure.
From above, it gazes at the town.
The first thing I discern
when I get back home.
The last I watch
when I escape from
this walled microcosmos.
It is much more than just
an old holm oak.
Lonely, there up on the top, calm,
it is the code of life for those
who try to withstand.
On a hill, sorrounded
by stones, brooms, ground
where trees take their roots,
it can hardly keep in balance.
My father showed it to me when, as a child,
we strolled along the countryside.
From then on, I preserve its shape
and that helps me to endure.
From above, it gazes at the town.
The first thing I discern
when I get back home.
The last I watch
when I escape from
this walled microcosmos.
It is much more than just
an old holm oak.
Lonely, there up on the top, calm,
it is the code of life for those
who try to withstand.
EL MURO
El muro, yo y luego el mundo:
Eso es mi mundo.
Henrik Nordbrandt
Me preguntas si ha sido esta ciudad
mi torre de marfil. Yo te respondo
que acaso las murallas
(a cuyos pies trabajo cada día,
a cuyas piedras se enfrentan las
ventanas
del piso donde vivo,
por cuyo alrededor siempre paseo),
sin voluntad privada o excluyente,
han sido mi refugio, una isla
aparte;
que entre sus muros, en fin, levantó
uno
su mundo frente al mundo.
su mundo frente al mundo.
THE
WALL
The wall, I
and then the rest of the world:
that is my
world.
Henrik
Nordbrandt
You
inquire whether this town has been
my
ivory tower. I answer you
that
perhaps its walls
(to
their feet I work everyday,
opposite
their stones, the windows
of
the house where I live,
around
them I always walk),
without
private or exclusive will,
they
have been my shelter, an island aside;
within
its walls, in fact,
I
built my world
against the rest of the world.
against the rest of the world.
Poemas de Álvaro Valverde.
English version by Piedad Marcos 7 y Néstor Hervás.
English version by Piedad Marcos 7 y Néstor Hervás.
