Francisco de Quevedo

Túmulo a Colón.
Habla un pedazo de la nave
en que descubrió el Nuevo Mundo.


Imperio tuve un tiempo, pasajero,
sobre las ondas de la mar salada;
del viento fui movida y respetada
y senda abrí al Antártico hemisfero.

Soy con larga vejez tosco madero;
fui haya, y de mis hojas adornada,
del mismo que alas hice en mi jornada,
lenguas para cantar hice primero.

Acompaño esta tumba tristemente,
y aunque son de Colón estos despojos,
su nombre callo, venerable y santo,

de miedo que, de lástima, la gente
tanta agua ha de verter con tiernos ojos,
que al mar nos vuelva a entrambos con el llanto.



Monument to Columbus.
Spoken by a piece of the ship
in which he discovered the New World.


Once I had an empire, wanderer,
upon the billows of the salty sea;
I was moved by the wind and well-respected,
to southern lands I forged an opening.

I am in my old age a rough-hewn plank;
I was a beech, and by my leaves adorned,
from that same stuff that I made wings for for sailing,
first I manufactured tongues to sing.

In sadness I accompany this tomb,
and though these are Columbus's remains,
I will not name him --holy,without peers--

for fear that, out of pity, people here
from tender eyes will so much water spill,
we'll be back on the ocean of their tears. 

                     (©Alix Ingber, 1995)



 E-mail your comments and questions to:

Alix Ingber
Professor of Spanish
Sweet Briar College

ingber@sbc.edu



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