EthicalDative

Versión castellana del poema “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” (1856) de Walt Whitman
English text at http://www.poetryfoundation.org
Spanish Interpretation by JMN

[Translator’s note: Though officially Spanish has imported the word “ferry,” I haven’t been happy with using it in the title of my rendering of Whitman’s poem. Conjoined with “Brooklyn” it just jangles with too much English. So I’ve shortened my title to “Travesía.” It’s pure, and I like the fluid semantic range of a “crossing” or “crossing over,” with its latency of skepticism for narrowly prescriptive boundaries.]

A middle third, give or take, of part 3, follows. Don’t forget, there are 9 parts.

(…3…)
I too many and many a time cross’d the river of old,
Yo también tantísimas veces atravesé el río antaño,
Watched the Twelfth-month sea-gulls, saw them high in the air floating with motionless wings, oscillating their bodies,
Observé las gaviotas del duodécimo mes, las vi flotar en el aire a gran altura con alas inmóviles, oscilando sus cuerpos,
Saw how the glistening yellow lit up parts of their bodies and left the rest in strong shadow,
Vi cómo el amarillo reluciente iluminaba porciones de sus cuerpos, dejando lo demás en sombra fuerte,
Saw the slow-wheeling circles and the gradual edging toward the south,
Vi los círculos que giraban lentamente y el avance poco a poco hacia el sur,
Saw the reflection of the summer sky in the water,
Vi el reflejo del cielo estival en el agua,
Had my eyes dazzled by the shimmering track of beams,
Quedé con ojos deslumbrados por el sendero encendido de rayos,
Look’d at the fine centrifugal spokes of light round the shape of my head in the sunlit water,
Observé los finos radios centrífugos de luz que rodeaban la imagen de mi cabeza en el agua soleada,
Look’d on the haze on the hills southward and south-westward,
Observé la neblina sobre las colinas hacia el sur y el suroeste,
Look’d on the vapor as it flew in fleeces tinged with violet,
Observé el vapor mientras volaba en hilos lanudos teñidos de violeta,
Look’d toward the lower bay to notice the vessels arriving,
Miré hacia la bahía inferior para fijarme en las embarcaciones que llegaban,
Saw their approach, saw aboard those that were near me,
Las vi acercarse, vi abordo a aquéllos que estaban cerca de mí,
Saw the white sails of schooners and sloops, saw the ships at anchor,
Vi las velas blancas de goletas y balandras, vi los barcos anclados,…

[… a continuarse]

(c) 2021 JMN. All rights reserved

Versión castellana del poema “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” (1856) de Walt Whitman
English text at http://www.poetryfoundation.org
Spanish Interpretation by JMN

[Translator’s note: In what’s coming, I’ve preferred preterite tense over imperfect tense where the speaker gives vent to a rapture of connection transcending space-time, indeed his own mortality, with citizenry to come; he looks back at his own actions and emotions in an imagined future, evoking the parallelism with theirs. Though his actions and states of mind are repetitive — “many and many a time,” “I was refresh’d,” etc. — and therefore have imperfective aspect normally in Spanish, I conceive of the speaker as projectively lumping his life (with all its repetition) into a terminated and concluded dimension — elegiac hindsight from anticipated afterlife, so to speak — and therefore better conveyed by the preterite. I have open ears if a Spanish reader disagrees with my tense choice.]

Roughly one-third of part 3 follows. Remember, there are 9 parts.

(3 begun)
It avails not, time nor place—distance avails not,
Para nada sirve, ni tiempo ni lugar — ni para nada la distancia,
I am with you, you men and women of a generation, or ever so many generations hence,
Estoy con vosotros, hombres y mujeres de una generación, o de aquí a tantas generaciones,
Just as you feel when you look on the river and sky, so I felt,
Igual lo que sentís al contemplar el río y el cielo, eso lo sentí yo,
Just as any of you is one of a living crowd, I was one of a crowd,
Igual que entre vosotros cualquiera es miembro de una muchedumbre viva, yo fui miembro de una muchedumbre,
Just as you are refresh’d by the gladness of the river and the bright flow, I was refresh’d,
Igual que os refrescáis con la alegría del rio y su flujo brillante, yo me refresqué,
Just as you stand and lean on the rail, yet hurry with the swift current, I stood yet was hurried,
Igual que quedáis parados y apoyados en la barra, y no obstante os precipitáis con la veloz corriente, yo me paré y me precipité,
Just as you look on the numberless masts of ships and the thick-stemm’d pipes of steamboats, I look’d.
Igual que contempláis los innumerables mástiles de barcos y las pipas de cañón grueso de los buques de vapor, yo contemplé.

(c) 2021 JMN. All rights reserved

Versión castellana del poema “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” (1856) de Walt Whitman
English text at www.poetryfoundation.org
Spanish Interpretation by JMN

The poem has 9 parts of differing lengths. The rest of part 2 follows here:

Others will enter the gates of the ferry and cross from shore to shore,
Otros pasarán por las puertas del ferry y cruzarán de orilla a orilla,
Others will watch the run of the flood-tide,
Otros observarán el correr de la pleamar,
Others will see the shipping of Manhattan north and west, and the heights of Brooklyn to the south and east,
Otros verán los buques de Manhattan al norte y al oeste, y las alturas de Brooklyn hacia el sur y el este,
Others will see the islands large and small;
Otros verán las islas grandes y pequeñas;
Fifty years hence, others will see them as they cross, the sun half an hour high,
De aquí a cincuenta años, otros los verán atravesar, salido el sol desde hace media hora,
A hundred years hence, or ever so many hundred years hence, others will see them,
De aquí a cien años, o a tantos cientos de años, otros los observarán,
Will enjoy the sunset, the pouring-in of the flood-tide, the falling-back to the sea of the ebb-tide.
Se deleitarán con la puesta del sol, el raudal que vierte la pleamar, la retirada al océano de la bajamar.

(Seguirá más “si Dios quiere.”)

(c) 2021 JMN. All rights reserved