«ANDROGYNOUS» (OR «ANDROGYNE»), TRANSLATION FROM THE POEM «ANDRÓGINO», BY AMADO NERVO

Amado Nervo, resting.

 

Por ti, por ti clamaba cuando surgiste,

Infernal arquetipo, del hondo Erebo,

Con tus neutros encantos, tu faz de efebo,

Tus senos pectorales y a mí viniste.

Sombra y luz, yema y polen a un tiempo fuiste

Despertando en las almas el crimen nuevo,

Ya con virilidades de dios mancebo,

Ya con mustios halagos de mujer triste.

Yo te amé porque, a trueque de ingenuas gracias,

Tenías las supremas aristocracias:

Sangre azul, alma huraña, vientre infecundo;

Porque sabías mucho y amabas poco,

Y eras síntesis rara de un siglo loco

Y floración malsana de un viejo mundo.

 Amado Nervo and Margarita,

adopted daughter of the poet.

For you, I was crying for you when you've emerged,

Infernal archetype, from the deep Erebus,

With your neutral delights, your face like ephebus,

Your pectoral breasts and then you've come to me.

Shade and light, bud and pollen at a time you've been,

Awakening the novel misdeed in the souls,

Either by virilities of pubescent god,

or by sorrowful woman wilted flatteries.

I've loved you because, in exchange for naive graces,

You've possessed the supreme aristocracies:

Blue blood, a bearish soul, an infecund womb;

Because you've been knowing a lot and loving bit,

And you've been a mad century rare synthesis

And an insane flowering from an ancient world.

Translation: Alfredo Salvador C. García.

November 5^th, 2014. Mexico City