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RosalÃa de Castro: When I was born (Other) by Sasha From the Galician "NasÃn cand' as prantas nasen"
I was born with plants and blossoms
In the month when gardens grew,
In a dawn so very gentle
In a dawn of April dew.
Thatâs the reason why Iâm Rosa
With a grin gone red with rue,
Bristling thorns for everybody
(Never, though, a thorn for you)
Since I fell in love (a thankless
Thing I did) lifeâs gone askew
And I let it go, believing
You my life and glory too.
Why then this complaining Mauro?
Why the rage? You know itâs true-
If my dying made you happy,
Happily Iâd die for you.
Still you stab me with a dagger
Spiked with curses. Not a clue
What it was you really wanted,
Crazy deeds you made me do!
All I had to give I gave you
In my hungering for you.
Now it is my heart I send you
With its one unlocking key.
Iâve got nothing left to give you,
Youâve no more to ask of me.
Up the ladder:
two
Down the ladder:
End
Votes: (green: user, blue: anonymous)
Arithmetic Mean: 8.0
Posted: June 21, 2004 12:19 PM PDT; Last modified: September 4, 2004 6:26 AM PDTWeighted score: 5.806824 Overall Rank: 1686 Comments:
[9]
titan69 @ 62.31.28.227
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21-Jun-04/1:47 PM
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Reply
I just dont know where you get these poems from you must have a great mind!!
Come spawn with me...
what you think about using "spake" instead of "spoke"?
I think "daggar" s/b "dagger" unless you a punning a character (it could happen!) nice one.
Daggar's a typo. Damn votes will erase if I change it tho.
Using spake for spoke would be completely inappropriate since this poem is somewhat more colloquial than that (at least it's meant to be.) RosalÃa de Castro was the first poet in centuries to write in her native Galician, (which is not unlike medieval portuguese) rather than Spanish. Thus her poetry, like Sappho's, is filled with colloquialisms mixed in with slight (and I do mean slight) archaisms. So spake for spoke would be completely out of place in a translation of DeCastro
oh, okay. Makes sense - I was just going for the sound of it - but really, it's fine as is.
Btw, I think you would enjoy the book called "Baudolino" by Umberto Eco. I'm 2/3rds through it; very good. He has a couple other non-fiction things on semiotics that would be right up your alley.
I've read his Serendipity
Not read that one - any good?
very. lots of interesting observations on the origin and purpose of language
You're translations astound me. This reads beautifully. It makes me feel...good.
Hey Sasha, long time. I really enjoyed this one, Brings memories to mind that almost make me cry. Just what I needed after last night. Thanks.
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