Francisco de Quevedo

A Roma sepultada en sus ruinas


Buscas en Roma a Roma, ¡oh, peregrino!,
y en Roma misma a Roma no la hallas;
cadáver son las que ostentó murallas,
y tumba de sí proprio el Aventino.

Yace donde reinaba el Palatino;
y limadas del tiempo, las medallas
más se muestran destrozo a las batallas
de las edades que blasón latino.

Sólo el Tibre quedó, cuya corriente,
si ciudad la regó, ya, sepoltura,
la llora con funesto son doliente.

¡Oh, Roma!, en tu grandeza, en tu hermosura,
huyó lo que era firme, y solamente
lo fugitivo permanece y dura.



To Rome buried in its ruins


You search in Rome for Rome, oh wanderer!,
and yet in Rome itself you don't find Rome:
the walls boasting its fame are now a corpse,
the Aventine now serves as its own tomb.

It lies now where the Palatine once reigned;
and its medallions, worn away by time,
show more the devastation of the battles
of the ages than great Latium's pride.

Only the Tiber has remained, whose flow,
if once a city watered, now, a grave,
it mourns for her with brokenhearted tones.

Oh Rome!, of all your greatness, your allure,
that which was firm has fled, and nothing but
what is elusive stays and will endure. 

                     (©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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