Miguel Hernandez

Last Song

Painted, not empty:
painted is my house
with color of the greatest
passions and misfortunes.

I’ll return from weeping
to where I was carried
with your deserted table,
with your ruinous bed.

Kisses will flower
over the pillow tops.

The sheets will elevate
your intense climbing
nocturne, perfumed
in a spin of bodies.

Hate softens itself
from behind the window.
A gradual hook follows.
Leave me only hope.

~Translated by Eric Swedberg

Cancióon ultima

Pintada, no vacía:
pintada está mi casa
del color de las grandes
pasiones y desgracias.

Regrasará del llanto
adonde fue llevada
con su desierta mesa,
con su ruinosa cama.

Florecerán los besos
sobre las almohadas.

Y en torno de los cuerpos
elevará le sábana
nocturna, perfumada.

El odio se amortigua
detrás de la ventana.
Será la garra suave.
Dejadme la esperanza.

(1938–1939)
_____

Translator’s note: Miguel Hernández (1910–~1942) was born into a poor family in Orihuela, Spain, and received little formal education. He was arrested many times for his anti-fascist sympathies and eventually sentenced to death (though he died of tuberculosis in extremely harsh prison conditions). Canción ultima is part of his Cancionero y romancero de ausencia (“Song and Ballad of Absence”), much of which is in the form of simple verses regarding the Spanish Civil War, his imprisonment, the death of an infant son, and the efforts of his wife and son to survive in poverty.