Torres de Dios Poetas!
Pararrayos celestes,que resistís las duras tempestades,como crestas escuetas,como picos agrestes,rompeolas de las eternidades!
La mágica Esperanza anuncia el díaen que sobre la roca de armoníaexpirará la pérfida sirena.
Esperad, esperemos todavía!
Esperad todavía.
El bestial elemento se
En el odio a la sacra prosa,y se arroja baldón de raza a raza.
La insurrección de abajotiende a los Excelentes.
El caníbal codicia su tasajocon roja encía y afilado dientes.
Torres, poned al paredón sonrisa.
Poned ante ese mal y ese recelo,una soberbia insinuación de brisay una tranquilidad de mar y cielo….
English
Poets!
Towers of
Poets!
Towers of
Made to resist the fury of the
Like cliffs beside the
Or clouded, savage peaks!
Masters of lightning!
Breakwaters of eternity!
Hope, magic-voiced, foretells the
When on the rock of
The Siren traitorous shall die and pass away,
And there shall only
The full, frank-billowed music of the sea.
Be hopeful still,
Though bestial elements yet
From Song with rancorous
And blinded races one another spurn!
Perversity
Among the high her rebel cry has raised.
The cannibal still lusts after the raw,
Knife-toothed and gory-faced.
Towers, your laughing banners now unfold.
Against all hatreds and all envious
Upraise the protest of the breeze, half-told,
And the proud quietness of sea and skies….
Translated by Salomon de la Selva, one of Nicaragua's major poets.
