‘Endecha Sin Música’

The poet Edna St. Vincent Millay and her husband, Eugen Jan Boissevain, in front of their home at 75½ Bedford Street, which has been cited as the “narrowest house in New York,” c. 1923. Credit… Library of Congress. [Jeremy Allen, “In the Pandemic Present, a Literary Tour of Greenwich Village’s Past,” NYTimes, 3-17-21]

Dirge Without Music
by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Text at http://www.poetryfoundation.org
Spanish paraphrase by JMN

Endecha Sin Música

I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.
No me resigno a que se recluyan corazones tiernos en el suelo duro.
So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:
Así es, y así será, porque así ha sido desde siempre:
Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Crowned
Entrando en la oscuridad van, los sabios y los bellos. Coronados
With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.
De lirios y de laurel van ellos; pero yo no me resigno.

Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.
Amantes y pensadores, entregaos a la tierra.
Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.
Uníos con el torpe polvo indiscriminado.
A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew,
Una pizca de lo que sentisteis, lo que supisteis,
A formula, a phrase remains,—but the best is lost.
Una fórmula, una frase se queda, — pero lo mejor está perdido.

The answers quick and keen, the honest look, the laughter, the love,—
Las réplicas prontas y agudas, la mirada honesta, la risa, el amor, —
They are gone. They are gone to feed the roses. Elegant and curled
Desvanecidos. Se fueron ya para alimentar las rosas. Elegante y rizada
Is the blossom. Fragrant is the blossom. I know. But I do not approve.
Es la flor. La flor es perfumada. Ya lo sé. Pero no me conformo con ello.
More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world.
Me era más preciosa la luz de tus ojos que todas las rosas del mundo.

Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave
Abajo, abajo, entrando en la noche de la tumba
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;
Suavemente van, los vistosos, los tiernos, los amables;
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
Silenciosos van, los inteligentes, los ingeniosos, los valientes.
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.
Ya lo sé. Pero no me conformo con ello. Y no estoy resignado.

About JMN

I live in Texas and devote much of my time to easel painting on an amateur basis. I stream a lot of music, mostly jazz, throughout the day. I like to read and memorize poetry.

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