One Night

^{translated by Thomas Walsh}

The ancient spiders with a flutter spread
   Their misty marvels through the withered flowers,
The windows, by the moonlight pierced, would shed
   Their trembling garlands pale across the bowers. 

The balconies looked over to the South;
   The night was one immortal and serene;
From fields afar the newborn springtime’s mouth
   Wafted a breath of sweetness o’er the scene. 

How silent! Grief had hushed its spectral moan
   Among the shadowy roses of the sward;
Love was a fable—shadows overthrown
   Trooped back in myriads from oblivion’s ward. 

The garden’s voice was all—empires had died—
   The azure stars in languor having known
The sorrows all the centuries provide,
   With silver crowned me there, remote and lone.

La soledad sonora, XI

Las antiguas arañas melodiosas, temblaban
maravillosamente sobre las mustias flores…
sus cristales, heridos por la luna, soñaban
guirnaldas temblorosas de pálidos colores… 

   Estaban los balcones abiertos al sur… Era
una noche inmortal, serena y transparente…
de los campos lejanos, la nueva primavera
mandaba, con la brisa, su aliento, dulcemente… 

   ¡Qué silencio! Las penas ahogaban su ruído
de espectros en las rosas vagas de las alfombras…
el amor no existía… tornaba del olvido
una ronda infinita de trastornadas sombras… 

   Todo lo era el jardín… Morían las ciudades…
Las estrellas azules, con la vana indolencia
de haber visto los duelos de todas las edades,
coronaban de plata mi nostalgia y mi ausencia…

This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on September 26, 2021, by the Academy of American Poets.

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“One Night” appeared in Hispanic Anthology (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1920).