Álvaro Cunqueiro / Wallace Stevens

 

Anécdota de homes por millares

A alma, dixo el, está feita
polo que ten arredor.

Hai homes do Oeste, dixo el,
que son o Oeste.
Hai homes dunha provincia
que son aquela provincia.
Hai homes dun val
que son aquel mesmo val.

As palabras de certos homes
son os propios sons do lugar que habitan,
como o rechouchío dun paxaro
é propiamente o paxaro.

A mandolina é o instrumento
dun lugar.

¿Hai mandolinas no Oeste?
¿Hai mandolinas no Norte?

O vestido dunha muller de Lhassa
no seu lugar
é un invisible elemento dese lugar
feito visible.


Da superficie de cousas [fragmento]

Na miña habitación
o mundo está máis alá do meu entendemento.
Pro cando paseo,
advirto que consiste tan soio
en catro outeiros e unha nuben.
Dende o meu balcón contemplo
o aér amarelo, e leo
o que escribiron nel:
“A primavera é unha beleza núa”.

Traduccións de Álvaro Cunqueiro publicadas orixinalmente no Faro de Vigo e despois no libro Flor de diversos, editado por Galaxia en 1991.
[Anecdote of Men by the Thousand // The soul, he said, is composed/ Of the external world.// There are men of the East, he said,/ Who are the East./ There are men of a province/ Who are that province./ There are men of a valley/ Who are that valley.// There are men whose words/ Are as natural sounds of their places/ As the cackle of toucans/ In the place of toucans.// The mandoline is the instrument/ Of a place.// Are there mandolines of western mountains?/ Are there mandolines of northern moonlight?// The dress of a woman of Lhassa,/ In its place,/ Is an invisible element of that place/ Made visible.
Of the Surface of Things // I / In my room, the world is beyond my understanding;/ But when I walk I see that it consists of three or four/ Hills and a cloud.// II / From my balcony, I survey the yellow air,/ Reading where I have written,/ “‘The spring is like a belle undressing”.// III / The gold tree is blue,/ The singer has pulled his cloak over his head./ The moon is in the folds of the cloak.]

  Centenario Cunqueiro 1911·2011