Rhymes and Legends (Selection)/Rimas y Leyendas (selección): A Dual-Language Book

Rhymes and Legends (Selection)/Rimas y Leyendas (selección): A Dual-Language Book

by Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer

Spain's great lyric poet, Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (1836–1870), is famed both for his poetry and his fiction. Bécquer's celebrated Rhymes consists of sixty-six of the most splendid poems written in Spain in the nineteenth century. As the Alvarez Quintero brothers said, "All his poetry is moonlight." And the six tales from Bécquer's Legends, shimmering between romance andfantasy, show why his prose is recognized as among the best from the Spanish Romantic tradition.

Editor Stanley Appelbaum provides sensitive, accurate English translations on the pages facing the original Spanish, as well as an informative introduction to the author's life and work. This volume is a treasure for students and teachers of Spanish language and literature and for lovers of poetry and storytelling.

Table of Contents for Rhymes and Legends (Selection) / Rimas y Leyendas (selección): A Dual-Language Book

• Introduction
• Rimas / Rhymes
• I. "Yo sé un himno gigante y extraño" / "I know a strange, gigantic hymn"
• II. "Saeta que voladora" / "A flying arrow"
• III. "Sacudimiento extraño" / "An odd jolt"
• IV. "No digáis que agotado su tesoro" / "Don't say that, its treasure exhausted"
• V. "Espíritu sin nombre" / "A nameless spirit"
• VI. "Como la brisa que la sangre orea" / "Like the breeze that airs and cools the blood"
• VII. "Del salón en el ángulo oscuro" / "In the dark corner of the parlor"
• VIII. "¡Cuando miro el azul horizonte" / "When I view the blue horizon"
• IX. "Besa el aura que gime blandamente" / "The softly moaning breeze kisses"
• X. "Los invisibles átomos del aire" / "The invisible atoms of the air"
• XI. "--Yo soy ardiente, yo soy morena" / "'I am an ardent woman, I am a brunette'"
• XII. "Porque son, niña, tus ojos" / "Girl, because your eyes are"
• XIII. "Tu pupila es azul y cuando ríes" / "Your eyes are blue, and when you laugh"
• XIV. "Te vi un punto, y flotando ante mis ojos" / "I glimpsed you only a moment, but the image of your eyes"
• XV. "Cendal flotante de leve bruma" / "A floating veil of light haze"
• XVI. "Si al mecer las azules campanillas" / "If, when the blue bellflowers"
• XVIII. "Fatigada del baile" / "Wearied by the dance"
• XIX. "Cuando sobre el pecho inclinas" / "When you let your melancholy head"
• XXI. "¿Qué es poesía?, dices mientras clavas" / "'What is poetry?' you ask, while you fix"
• XXIII. "Por una mirada, un mundo" / "In exchange for a glance: a world"
• XXIV. "Dos rojas lenguas de fuego" / "Two red tongues of fire"
• XXV. "Cuando en la noche te envuelven" / "When, at night, the gauzy wings"
• XXVI. "Voy contra mi interés al confesarlo" / "It's against my own interest to admit it"
• XXVII. "Despierta, tiemblo al mirarte" / "When you're awake, I tremble to behold you"
• XXVIII. "Cuando entre la sombra oscura" / "When a voice, lost"
• XXX. "Asomaba a sus ojos una lágrima" / "A tear appeared in her eyes"
• XXXI. "Nuestra pasión fue un trágico sainete" / "Our passion was a tragic short farce"
• XXXII. "Pasaba arrolladora en su hermosura" / "She passed by, devastating in her beauty"
• XXXIII. "Es cuestión de palabras, y no obstante" / "It's a matter of words, and yet"
• XXXIV. "Cruza callada, y son sus movimientos" / "She passes by in silence, and her movements are" XXXVI. "Si de nuestros agravios en un libro" / "If the history of our mutual offenses"
• XXXVII. "Antes que tú me moriré: escondido" / "I shall die before you do: buried"
• XXXVIII. "¡Los suspiros son aire y van al aire!" / "Sighs are air and return to the air!"
• XXXIX. "¿A qué me lo decís? Lo sé; es mudable" / "Why do you all tell me this? I know: she's fickle"
• XLI. "Tú eras el huracán y yo la alta" / "You were the hurricane and I the lofty"
• XLII. "Cuando me lo contaron sentí el frío" / "When I was told about it, I felt the coldness"
• XLIII. "Dejé la luz a un lado, y en el borde" / "I turned away from the daylight, and sat
• XLIV. "Como en un libro abierto" / "As in an open book"
• XLVI. "Me ha herido recatándose en las sombras" / "She wounded me as she hid in the shadows"
• XLVII. "Yo me he asomado a las profundas simas" / "I have peered into the deep chasms"
• XLIX. "Alguna vez la encuentro por el mundo" / "Sometimes I meet her in society"
• L. "Lo que el salvaje que con torpe mano" / "Just as a savage with awkward hands"
• LI. "De lo poco de vida que me resta" / "Of the little life remaining to me"
• LII. "Olas gigantes que os rompéis bramando" / "You gigantic waves that break with a roar"
• LIII. "Volverán las oscuras golondrinas" / "The dark swallows will return"
• LIV. "Cuando volvemos las fugaces horas" / "When we resume the evocation"
• LV. "Entre el discorde estruendo de la orgía" / "Amid the discordant uproar of the wild party"
• LVI. "Hoy como ayer, mañana como hoy" / "Today as yesterday, tomorrow as today"
• LVII. "Este armazón de huesos y pellejo" / "This framework of bones and skin"
• LVIII. "¿Quieres que de ese néctar delicioso" / "Do you want to enjoy this delicious nectar"
• LX. "Mi vida es un erial" / "My life is an untilled field"
• LXI. "Al ver mis horas de fiebre" / "Who, seeing my hours of fever"
• LXII. "Primero es un albor trémulo y vago" / "At first, it's a tremulous, vague glimmering"
• LXIII. "Como enjambre de abejas irritadas" / "Like a swarm of angry bees"
• LXV. "Llegó la noche y no encontré un asilo" / "Night fell, and I couldn't find shelter"
• LXVI. "¿De dónde vengo? El más horrible y áspero" / "Where have I come from? Seek out the most fearful"
• LXVII. "¿Qué hermoso es ver el día" / "How lovely it is to see day"
• LXVIII. "No sé lo que he soñado" / "I don't know what I dreamt"
• LXIX. "Al brillar un relámpago nacemos" / "When a lightning bolt flashes we are born"
• LXX. "¿Cuántas veces al pie de las musgosas" / "How often at the foot of the moss-covered"
• LXXI. "No dormía; vagaba en ese limbo" / "I wasn't sleeping; I was drifting in that limbo"
• LXXII. "Las ondas tienen vaga armonía" / "The waters have their vague harmony"
• LXXIII. "Cerraron sus ojos" / "They closed her eyes"
• LXXIV. "Las ropas desceñidas" / "Their garments unfastened"
• LXXV. "¿Será verdad que cuando toca el sueño" / "Can it be true that when slumber touches"
• LXXVI. "En la imponente nave" / "In the imposing nave"
• Leyendas / Legends
• La cruz del diablo / The Devil's Cross
• La ajorca de oro / The Golden Bracelet
• El monte de las ánimas / The Forest of the Souls in Purgatory
• El rayo de luna / The Moonbeam
• El Miserere / The Miserere
• La corza blanca / The White Doe
• Alphabetical List of Spanish Verse First Lines