Lope de Vega

Soneto

--Boscán, tarde llegamos. ¿Hay posada?
--Llamad desde la posta, Garcilaso.
--¿Quién es? --Dos caballeros del Parnaso.
--No hay donde nocturnar palestra armada.

--No entiendo lo que dice la criada.
Madona, ¿qué decís? --Que afecten paso,
que obstenta limbos el mentido ocaso
y el sol depinge la porción rosada.

--¿Estás en ti , mujer? --Negóse al tino
el ambulante huésped. --¡Que en tan poco
tiempo tal lengua entre cristianos haya!

Boscán, perdido habemos el camino;
preguntad por Castilla, que estoy loco
o no habemos salido de Vizcaya.



Sonnet

"Boscán, we're late arriving. Is there room?"
"Call to them from the gatepost, Garcilaso."
"Who's there?" "Two gentlemen from Mount Parnassus."
"There's no palaestra here to nocturnate."

"I cannot understand what the maid says.
Madame, what did you say?" "Effect retreat,
while dusk obstends its aformentioned limbos
and the sun distills its pink particulate."

"Have you gone crazy, Miss?" "The errant guest's
the one who's lost his way." "In what brief span
have Christians learned to speak such tongues, I ask!

Boscán, I'm sure that we have lost our way;
ask where's Castile, for either I've gone mad
or we've not left the country of the Basques." 

                     (©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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