Fernando de Herrera 8 Sonnets translated from the Spanish by Michael Smith

(Osé i temí: mas pudo la osadía)

I dared and feared, and yet my daring
was so great I scorned craven fear;
I climbed to where the fire inflames and burns
me the further hope is lost.

I spent my youth in error, and now
I see the harm, but it's all too late;
for no amount of sense can save
someone blinded by his own stubbornness.

At times I try (to what avail?) to rise
above the heavy yoke that loads my neck;
but lack of strength then fails me.

So I pursue my madness, for now my honour
will not let me change, nor is it fair that one
who yielded up his heart so much should suffer such dispraise.

 

*

 

('¿Dó vas? ¿dó?, crüel, dó vas? refrena)

'Where are you off to, where, where, cruel one?
Halt, halt your hastening footsteps
while the lengthy weeping of my grief
begins to open this deep vein.

Hear my voice filled with a thousand sighs
and the mournful song of my suffering;
for you cannot be so fierce and unbending
not to be moved by this sharp pain of mine.

Turn your light on me, turn your eyes,
before I'm left blacked-out in a blind mist,'
I said this in my sleep, or lost in illusion.

Recovered, I found myself alone amid thorns,
and instead of light, enveloped in darkness,
and transformed to burning tears.

 

 

*

 

(Flaca esperança en todas mis porfías)

Debile hope in all my obstinate strivings,
futile longing in unrivalled torment,
and pointless outcome of the pain I feel,
unceasing tears and anguishes of mine:

permit a disconsolate wretch
one hour of joy in so many days of sadness,
and let him a while enjoy contentedly
the glory of blisses that he has imagined.

It is not fair at all ill fortune
should oppress and rack me always
and that new pain of old delirium rend my breast.

But oh, I fear so much my happy state,
unused to, as I am, untaught in happy fortune,
I cheerfully embrace this heavy pain of mine.

 

*

 

(Como en la cumbre ecelsa de Mimante)

As on the lofty peak of Mimas,
where the huge giant burns in his eternal prison
and tries to raise his angry brow
and once again wage dark war against the heavens,

one sees in the horrid shapes of clouds,
that fly forward and above, the nature
of the furious storm that threatens
with its show of brutal aspect:

so there is shown by my sighs and sadness,
by my deep lament and great sorrow, the pain
enclosing my hardened breast.

Therefore, let my weakness give you no affront,
beautiful Star of Love; for my torment
cannot fit within a vessel of such straitness.

 

*

 

(Subo con tan gran peso quebrantado)

Stumbling beneath so great a weight, I climb
this precipitous, sharp high sierra
whose peak I've still to reach, when my foot
slips and I tumble down to the cliff below.

Suffering the blows and burden,
I can scarcely rise, yet I resume
my old struggle. But what's the use?
The ground itself fails my habitual route.

But though I weaken in the danger
I strive ahead, exhaust myself
countless times in this delusion.

Fear grows, and I grow in stubbornness.
Like a revolving wheel, endlessly turning
I plummet down to my own detriment.

 

*

 

(Serena Luz, en quien presente espira)

Serene Light, in whom the presence of divine
love breathes. It inflames and checks
the noble breast that, mortally bound,
aspires to rise to high Olympus;

opulent golden tresses where one perceives
the heavenly treasure of eternal lode;
harmony of angelic Siren,
exhaling amid pearls and coral.

What new wonder, what image
of immortal grandeur reveals to us
that shadow of your lovely mask?

For in that beauty that I ponder
(though it dazzles and occludes my poor sight)
I seek out that vast beauty and go on my way to heaven.

 

*

 

(Viví gran tiempo en confusión perdido)

I lived a long time lost in confusion,
entirely estranged from myself.
I despaired of joy, for in this condition
I lost the brightest light of my mind.

But when I forgot myself the most,
Love's most honoured enemy
broke the harsh bonds of my care
and felled him vanquished at my feet.

Now that I pursue my own advantage
I can say that, myself again, I live
in freedom remote from Love and all his harms.

Let disdain, Antonio, put an end
to a similar madness in your breast
before his deceptions overwhelm you.

 

*

 

(Ya el rigor importuno i grave hielo)

Now the unwelcome sternness and heavy ice
strips bare the colours and beauty
of the painted earth, and sadly
the bright sky is overcast in a dark mist.

And yet, Pacheco, this same frozen soil
turns green again and proudly
displays its riches, and Favonius' warm breath
unbinds the darkness of the white marble.

But the sweet colour and beauty
of our human life, when it departs,
does not return. O mortal fate! O brief glory!

But virtue alone gives us reassurance,
for greedy time, though it destroys this flower of life
has never dared to conquer that.

 

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