Los Ojos
Antonio Machado
Antonio Machado
I.
Cuando murío su amada
penso en hacerse viejo
en la mansion cerrada,
solo, con su memoria y el espejo
donde ella se miraba un claro dia.
Como el oro en el arca del avaro,
penso que quardaria
todo un ayer en el espejo claro.
Ya el tiempo para el no correria.
II.
Mas pasado el primer aniversario,
como era—preguntó—pardos o negross,
sus ojos? Glaucos?...Grises?
Como eran, Santo Dios! que no recuerdo?...
III.
Salio a al calle un dia
de primera, y paseo en silencio
su doble luto, el corazon cerrado...
IV.
De una ventana en el sombrio hueco
vio unos ojos brillar. Bajó los suyos
y siguió su camino...Como ésos!
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The Eyes
Antonio Machado
I.
When his beloved died
he thought he'd just grow old,
shutting himself in the house
alone, with memories and the mirror
that she had looked in one bright day.
Like gold in the miser's chest,
he thought he'd keep all yesterday
in the clear mirror intact.
For him time's flow would cease.
II.
But after a year had passed,
he began to wonder about her eyes:
"Were they brown or black? Or green? ...Or grey?
What were they like? Good God! I can't recall..."
III.
One day in Spring he left the house
and took his double mourning down the street
in silence, his heart tight shut...
In the dim hollow of a window
he caught a flash of eyes. He lowered his...
and walked right on...Like those!
Translated by Alan S. Trueblood
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The Eyes
Antonio Machado
When his beloved died
he decided to grow old
and shut himself inside
the empty house, alone
with his memories of her
and the big sunny mirror
where she'd fixed her hair.
This great block of gold
he hoarded like a miser,
thinking here, at least,
he'd lock away the past,
keep one thing intact.
But around the first anniversary,
he began to wonder, to his horror,
about her eyes: Were they brown or black,
or grey? Green? Christ! I can't say ...
One Spring morning, something gave in him;
shouldering his twin grief like a cross,
he shut the front door, turned into the street
and had walked just ten yards, when, from a dark close,
he caught a flash of eyes. He lowered his hat-brim
and walked on ... yes, they were like that; like that ...
Translated by Don Paterson
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