John Huston

USA (1906-1987)



The Dead, 1987



The Grief of a Girl's Heart (or Broken Vows)


O Donall og, if you go across the sea,
bring myself with you and do not forget it;
and you will have a sweetheart for fair days and market days,
and the daughter of the King of Greece beside you at night.

It is late last night the dog was speaking of you;
the snipe was speaking of you in her deep marsh.
It is you are the lonely bird through the woods;
and that you may be without a mate until you find me.

You promised me, and you said a lie to me,
that you would be before me where the sheep are flocked;
I gave a whistle and three hundred cries to you,
and I found nothing there but a bleating lamb.

You promised me a thing that was hard for you,
a ship of gold under a silver mast;
twelve towns with a market in all of them,
and a fine white court by the side of the sea.

You promised me a thing that is not possible,
that you would give me gloves of the skin of a fish;
that you would give me shoes of the skin of a bird,
and a suit of the dearest silk in Ireland.

O Donall og,
it is I would be better to you
than a high proud, spendthrift lady:
I would milk the cow; I would bring help to you;
and if you were hard pressed,
I would strike a blow for you.

O, ochone,
and it's not with hunger or with wanting food,
or drink, or sleep, that I am growing thin,
and my life is shortened;
but it is the love of a young man has withered me away.

It is early in the morning that I saw him coming,
going along the road on the back of a horse;
he did not come to me; he made nothing of me;
and it is on my way home that I cried my fill.

When I go by myself to the Well of Loneliness,
I sit down and I go through my trouble;
when I see the world and do not see my boy,
he that has amber shade in his hair.

It was on that Sunday I gave my love to you;
the Sunday that is last before Easter Sunday.
And myself on my knees reading the Passion;
and my two eyes giving my love to you for ever.

O, aya!
My mother, give myself to him;
and give him all that you have in the world;
get out yourself to ask for alms,
and do not come back and forward looking for me.

My mother said to me not to be talking with you to-day,
or tomorrow, or on the Sunday;
it was a bad time she took for telling me that;
it was shutting the door after the house was robbed.

My heart is as black as the blackness of the sloe,
or the black coal that is on the smith's forge;
or as the sole of a shoe left in white halls;
it was you put that darkness into my life.

You have taken the east from me;
you have taken the west from me;
you have taken what is before me and what is behind me;
you have taken the moon,
you have taken the sun from me;
and my fear is great
that you have taken God from me!



translated by Lady Isabella Augusta Gregory, Ireland (1852-1932)

en The Kiltartan Poetry Book. Prose Translations from the Irish, New York/London: The Knickerbocker Press, 1919


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anoche, tarde, el perro hablaba de vos;
la gallineta hablaba de vos en su profundo pantano.
Decía que sos el ave solitaria de los bosques;
y que no tendrás pareja hasta que me encuentres.

Me prometiste, y me mentiste,
dijiste que estarías conmigo allí donde se juntan las ovejas;
di un silbido y te grité trescientas veces,
y sólo encontré ahí un cordero que balaba.

Me prometiste algo que era difícil para vos,
un barco de oro bajo un mástil de plata;
doce ciudades con un mercado en cada una de ellas;
y una hermosa plaza blanca junto al mar.

Me prometiste algo que no es posible,
que me darías guantes de piel de pez;
que me darías zapatos de piel de pájaro,
y un traje de la mejor seda de Irlanda.

Mi madre me dijo que no te hablara hoy,
ni mañana, ni el domingo;
eligió un mal momento para decírmelo;
fue cerrar la puerta después de que la casa fuera robada.

Te has llevado de mí el este;
te has llevado de mí el oeste;
te has llevado lo que está frente a mí y lo que está detrás de mí;
te has llevado la luna,
te has llevado el sol de mí;
y tengo mucho miedo
de que te hayas llevado a Dios de mí!




traducción: Gabriela Adelstein, 2009