Sunday, September 12, 2010

madrid maravilla

Madrid lives on sweet jamon in all its salty incarnations...
denso, suave el aire orea tantas callejas,
plazuelas, cuya alma es la flor del naranjo.

she reveres her guitar gods, strumming to her lifeblood...
resuenan cerca, lejos, clarines masculinos
aqui, alli la flauta y oboe femeninos.

she brings her glory Art back to the Prado after the carnage...
magica por el cielo la luna fulge, llena
luna de parasceve. azahar, luna, musica,

she dances her full passion on a holy sunday afternoon...
entrelazados, banan la ciudad toda. y breve
tu mente la contiene en si, como una mano
 
she dreams her soft childhood through an antique store window...
amorosa. nostalgias? no. lo que asi recreas
es el tiempo sin tiempo del nino, los instintos

she touches the warm cracked tiles of her ancestral land...
aprendiendo la vida dichosamente, como
la planta nueva aprende en suelo amigo. eco

and she wonders at the pendent world through the silvery falling stars...
que, a la doble distancia, generoso hoy te vuelve,
en leyenda, a tu origen. et in Arcadia ego.

[verses in spanish are from "Full Moon During Holy Week" by Luis CERNUDA, 1902-1963]