El Lebrel del Cielo (The Hound of Heaven) de Francis Thompson Versión en español de Carlos A. Sáenz Le huía noche y día a través de los arcos de los años, y le huía a porfía por entre los tortuosos aledaños de mi alma, y me cubría con la niebla del llanto o con la carcajada, como un manto. He escalado esperanzas, me he hundido en el abismo deleznable, para huir de los Pasos que me alcanzan: persecución sin prisa, imperturbable, inminencia prevista y sin contraste. Los oigo resonar... y aún más fuerte una Voz que me advierte: -"Todo te deja, porque me dejaste". I fled Him, down the nights and down the days; I fled Him, down the arches of the years; I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears I hid from Him, and under running laughter. Up vistaed hopes I sped; And shot, precipitated, Adown Titanic glooms of chasmed fears, From those strong Feet that followed, followed after. But with unhurrying chase, And unperturbed pace, Deliberate speed, majestic instancy, They beat--and a Voice beat More instant than the Feet-- 'All things betray thee, who betrayest Me.' Golpeaba las ventanas que ofrecen al proscrito sus encantos y temblando de espanto pensaba que el Amor que me persigue, si al final me consigue, no dejará brillar más que su llama; y si alguna ventana se entreabría, el soplo de su acceso la cerraba. El miedo no alcanzaba a huir cuanto el Amor me perseguía. I pleaded, outlaw-wise, By many a hearted casement, curtained red, Trellised with intertwining charities; (For, though I knew His love Who followed, Yet was I sore adread Lest, having Him, I must have naught beside). But, if one little casement parted wide, The gust of His approach would clash it to. Fear wist not to evade, as Love wist to pursue. Me evadí de este mundo; violé la puerta de oro de los cielos, pidiendo amparo a sus sonoros velos, y arranqué notas dulces y un profundo rumor de plata al astro plateado. Al alba dije "Ven”; "ven", a la tarde, "escondedme de aqueste Enamorado de miedo que me aguarde". Tenté a sus servidores, y sólo hallé traición en su constancia. Para Él la fe; de mí perseguidores con falsa rectitud y leal falacia. Across the margent of the world I fled, And troubled the gold gateways of the stars, Smiting for shelter on their clanged bars; Fretted to dulcet jars And silvern chatter the pale ports o' the moon. I said to Dawn: Be sudden--to Eve: Be soon; With thy young skiey blossoms heap me over From this tremendous Lover-- Float thy vague veil about me, lest He see! I tempted all His servitors, but to find My own betrayal in their constancy, In faith to Him their fickleness to me, Their traitorous trueness, and their loyal deceit. Pedí volar a todo lo ligero, asiéndome a las crines del pampero, y aunque se deslizaba por la azul lejanía, y el trueno hacía resonar su carro, y zapateaba el rayo, el miedo no alcanzaba a huir cuanto el Amor me perseguía. Persecución sin prisa, imperturbable, majestuosa inminencia. En las veredas dejan los Pasos que la Voz me hable: - "Nada te hospedará si no me hospedas" To all swift things for swiftness did I sue; Clung to the whistling mane of every wind. But whether they swept, smoothly fleet, The long savannahs of the blue; Or whether, Thunder-driven, They clanged his chariot 'thwart a heaven, Plashy with flying lightnings round the spurn o' their feet:-- Fear wist not to evade as Love wist to pursue. Still with unhurrying chase, And unperturbed pace, Deliberate speed, majestic instancy, Came on the following Feet, And a Voice above their beat-- 'Naught shelters thee, who wilt not shelter Me.' Ya no busco mi sueño interrogando un rostro de hombre o de mujer, mas quedan los ojos de los niños esperando: hay algo en ellos para mí de veras. Y cuando mi ansiedad se prometía el dulce despertar de una respuesta, los ángeles venían y los llevaban por la senda opuesta. "Venid (clamaba), dadme la frescura de la Naturaleza que guardan vuestros labios de pureza; dejadme juguetear en las alturas; habitar el palacio azul de vuestra Madre, cuyas trenzas vagan por el espacio, y beber como un llanto de ambrosía el rocío del día." I sought no more that after which I strayed In face of man or maid; But still within the little children's eyes Seems something, something that replies, They at least are for me, surely for me! I turned me to them very wistfully; But just as their young eyes grew sudden fair With dawning answers there, Their angel plucked them from me by the hair. `Come then, ye other children, Nature's--share With me' (said I) `your delicate fellowship; Let me greet you lip to lip, Let me twine with you caresses, Wantoning With our Lady-Mother's vagrant tresses, Banqueting With her in her wind-walled palace, Underneath her azured daïs, Quaffing, as your taintless way is, From a chalice Lucent-weeping out of the dayspring.' Y al fin lo conseguí: fui recibido En su dulce amistad, y abrí el sentido de los matices de la faz del cielo, de la nube naciente entre los velos de la espuma del mar. Nací con ella para morir con todo lo escondido. Me conformé a sus huellas. Supe caer cuando la tarde cae al encender sus lámparas de duelo, y reír con la aurora de ojos suaves, y llorar con la lluvia de los cielos, y hacer mi corazón del sol gemelo. So it was done: I in their delicate fellowship was one-- Drew the bolt of Nature's secrecies. I knew all the swift importings On the wilful face of skies; I knew how the clouds arise Spumed of the wild sea-snortings; All that's born or dies Rose and drooped with; made them shapers Of mine own moods, or wailful or divine; With them joyed and was bereaven. I was heavy with the even, When she lit her glimmering tapers Round the day's dead sanctities. I laughed in the morning's eyes. I triumphed and I saddened with all weather, Heaven and I wept together, And its sweet tears were salt with mortal mine; Against the red throb of its sunset-heart I laid my own to beat, And share commingling heat. Pero ¡qué inútilmente! Imposible entender lo que otro siente. Las cosas hablan un lenguaje arcano, incomprensible; es un silencio vano para mi inteligencia. Aunque pudiera prenderme de sus pechos como un niño, seguiría mi sed de otro cariño. Y noche a noche afuera oigo los Pasos que me dan alcance con medida carrera, deliberado avance, majestad inminente, que deja oír la Voz de la otra parte: - "Nada podrá llegar a contentarte mientras no me contentes." But not by that, by that, was eased my human smart. In vain my tears were wet on Heaven's grey cheek. For ah! we know not what each other says, These things and I; in sound I speak-- Their sound is but their stir, they speak by silences. Nature, poor stepdame, cannot slake my drouth; Let her, if she would owe me, Drop yon blue bosom-veil of sky, and show me The breasts o' her tenderness: Never did any milk of hers once bless My thirsting mouth. Nigh and nigh draws the chase, With unperturbed pace, Deliberate speed, majestic instancy; And past those noised Feet A voice comes yet more fleet-- 'Lo! naught contents thee, who content'st not Me.' Espero el golpe de tu amor, inerme. Pieza a pieza rompiste mi armadura. De rodillas estoy, y dudo al verme despierto y despojado. La fuerza juvenil de mi locura sacudió las columnas de las horas, y mi vida es un templo desplomado; montón de años, multitud de escombros el ayer y el ahora. Los sueños mismos se han evaporado, y mis días son polvo. Las fantasías con que ataba el mundo me abandonan : son cuerdas muy delgadas para alzar una tierra recargada por el dolor profundo. ¡ Ay! que tu amor es hierba de dolores que sólo deja florecer sus flores. ¡Oh imaginero eterno, es suficiente! Tú quemas el carbón con que dibujas. Mi juventud es fuga de burbujas; mi corazón la fuente quebrada, donde no queda nada del llanto de mi mente. Naked I wait Thy love's uplifted stroke! My harness piece by piece Thou hast hewn from me, And smitten me to my knee; I am defenceless utterly. I slept, methinks, and woke, And, slowly gazing, find me stripped in sleep. In the rash lustihead of my young powers, I shook the pillaring hours And pulled my life upon me; grimed with smears, I stand amid the dust o' the mounded years-- My mangled youth lies dead beneath the heap. My days have crackled and gone up in smoke, Have puffed and burst as sun-starts on a stream. Yea, faileth now even dream The dreamer, and the lute the lutanist; Even the linked fantasies, in whose blossomy twist I swung the earth a trinket at my wrist, Are yielding; cords of all too weak account For earth with heavy griefs so overplussed. Ah! is Thy love indeed A weed, albeit an amaranthine weed, Suffering no flowers except its own to mount? Ah! must-- Designer infinite!-- Ah! must Thou char the wood ere Thou canst limn with it? My freshness spent its wavering shower i' the dust; And now my heart is as a broken fount, Wherein tear-drippings stagnate, spilt down ever From the dank thoughts that shiver Upon the sighful branches of my mind. ¡Sea! mas ¿qué amargura si la pulpa es amarga, me deparan las heces? Lo vislumbro en la fisura del telón de las nubes que rasgara_ el sonar de las trompas celestiales. Aun sin poder reconocer sus reales, su púrpura, su cetro, su guarida, le conozco y le entiendo. Se apresura; quiere mi corazón, quiere mi vida, quiere mi podredumbre, quiere mi oscuridad para su lumbre. Such is; what is to be? The pulp so bitter, how shall taste the rind? I dimly guess what Time in mists confounds; Yet ever and anon a trumpet sounds From the hid battlements of Eternity; Those shaken mists a space unsettle, then Round the half-glimpsed turrets slowly wash again. But not ere him who summoneth I first have seen, enwound With glooming robes purpureal, cypress-crowned; His name I know, and what his trumpet saith. Whether man's heart or life it be which yields Thee harvest, must Thy harvest-fields Be dunged with rotten death? Ya la persecución está lograda. Y la Voz como un mar en torno fluye: -¿Crees que la tierra gime destrozada? Todo te huye, porque tú me huyes. Now of that long pursuit Comes on at hand the bruit; That Voice is round me like a bursting sea: `And is thy earth so marred, Shattered in shard on shard? Lo, all things fly thee, for thou fliest Me! ¡Extraña, fútil cosa, miserable! dime, ¿cómo podrías ser amada?; ¿no he hecho ya demasiado de tu nada para hacerte sin mérito, aceptable? Pizca de barro, ¿acaso tú no sabes cuán poco amor te cabe? ¿Quién hallarás que te ame? Solamente yo, que cuanto te pido te he quitado, para que me lo pidas de prestado y lo dé misericordiosamente. Strange, piteous, futile thing! Wherefore should any set thee love apart? Seeing none but I makes much of naught' (He said), `And human love needs human meriting: How hast thou merited-- Of all man's clotted clay the dingiest clot? Alack, thou knowest not How little worthy of any love thou art! Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble thee, Save Me, save only Me? All which I took from thee I did but take, Not for thy harms, But just that thou might'st seek it in My arms. Lo que tú crees perdido está en mi casa levántate, toma mi mano y pasa. Los Pasos se han quedado junto al vano. Acaso ¡oh tú, tiniebla que me ofusca seas sólo la sombra de Su mano! -"Oh loco, ciego, enfermo que te abrasas, pues buscas el amor, a mí me buscas, y lo rechazas cuando me rechazas." All which thy child's mistake Fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home: Rise, clasp My hand, and come!' Halts by me that footfall: Is my gloom, after all, Shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly? `Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest, I am He Whom thou seekest! Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest Me.'