Francisco de Aldana

Soneto XXXIV: Reconocimiento de la vanidad del mundo

En fin, en fin, tras tanto andar muriendo,
tras tanto varïar vida y destino,
tras tanto de uno en otro desatino
pensar todo apretar, nada cogiendo,

tras tanto acá y allá yendo y viniendo
cual sin aliento inútil peregrino,
¡oh Dios!, tras tanto error del buen camino,
yo mismo de mi mal ministro siendo,

hallo, en fin, que ser muerto en la memoria
del mundo es lo mejor que en él se asconde,
pues es la paga dél muerte y olvido,

y en un rincón vivir con la vitoria
de sí, puesto el querer tan sólo adonde
es premio el mismo Dios de lo servido.



Sonnet #XXXIV: Recognition of the world's vanity

At last, at last, with so much time spent dying,
and with so many turns of life and fate,
so many times to every folly flying
with hopes to grasp it all, always too late,

with so much here and there, coming and going
much like a useless pilgrim, worn and spent,
oh God!, so often the right path foregoing,
to serve my meanness my whole life content,

I find, at last, that to be dead and gone
to this world is the best that can transpire,
for oblivion and death it will accord,

and living in a corner having won
oneself, fixing in just that place desire
where God himself thus served is the reward. 

                     (©Alix Ingber, 1995)



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E-mail your comments and questions to:

Alix Ingber
Professor of Spanish
Sweet Briar College

ingber@sbc.edu



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