El Lebrel del Cielo (The Hound of Heaven), de Francis Thompson

Le hua noche y da a travs de los arcos de los aos, y le hua a porfa por entre los tortuosos aledaos de mi alma, y me cubra con la niebla del llanto o con la carcajada, como un manto. Up vistaed hopes I sped; And shot, precipitated, Adown Titanic glooms of chasmed fears, From those strong Feet that followed, followed after. But with unhurrying chase, And unperturbed pace, Deliberate speed, majestic instancy, They beat--and a Voice beat More instant than the Feet-'All things betray thee, who betrayest Me.' I fled Him, down the nights and down the days; I fled Him, down the arches of the years; I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears I hid from Him, and under running laughter.

He escalado esperanzas, me he hundido en el abismo deleznable, para huir de los Pasos que me alcanzan: persecucin sin prisa, imperturbable, inminencia prevista y sin contraste. Los oigo resonar... y an ms fuerte una Voz que me advierte: -"Todo te deja, porque me dejaste".

Golpeaba las ventanas que ofrecen al proscrito sus encantos y temblando de espanto pensaba que el Amor que me persigue, si al final me consigue, no dejar brillar ms que su llama; y si alguna ventana se entreabra, el soplo de su acceso la cerraba. El miedo no alcanzaba a huir cuanto el Amor me persegua. I pleaded, outlaw-wise, By many a hearted casement, curtained red, Trellised with intertwining charities; (For, though I knew His love Who followed, Yet was I sore adread Lest, having Him, I must have naught beside). But, if one little casement parted wide, The gust of His approach would clash it to. Fear wist not to evade, as Love wist to pursue.

Me evad de este mundo; viol la puerta de oro de los cielos, pidiendo amparo a sus sonoros velos, y arranqu notas dulces y un profundo rumor de plata al astro plateado. Al alba dije "Ven; "ven", a la tarde, "escondedme de aqueste Enamorado de miedo que me aguarde". Tent a sus servidores, y slo hall traicin en su constancia. Para l la fe; de m perseguidores con falsa rectitud y leal falacia.

Across the margent of the world I fled, And troubled the gold gateways of the stars, Smiting for shelter on their clanged bars; Fretted to dulcet jars And silvern chatter the pale ports o' the moon. I said to Dawn: Be sudden--to Eve: Be soon; With thy young skiey blossoms heap me over From this tremendous Lover-Float thy vague veil about me, lest He see! I tempted all His servitors, but to find My own betrayal in their constancy, In faith to Him their fickleness to me, Their traitorous trueness, and their loyal deceit.

Ped volar a todo lo ligero, asindome a las crines del pampero, y aunque se deslizaba por la azul lejana,

To all swift things for swiftness did I sue; Clung to the whistling mane of every wind. But whether they swept, smoothly fleet, The long savannahs of the blue;

y el trueno haca resonar su carro, y zapateaba el rayo, el miedo no alcanzaba a huir cuanto el Amor me persegua. Persecucin sin prisa, imperturbable, majestuosa inminencia. En las veredas dejan los Pasos que la Voz me hable: - "Nada te hospedar si no me hospedas"

Or whether, Thunder-driven, They clanged his chariot 'thwart a heaven, Plashy with flying lightnings round the spurn o' their feet:-Fear wist not to evade as Love wist to pursue. Still with unhurrying chase, And unperturbed pace, Deliberate speed, majestic instancy, Came on the following Feet, And a Voice above their beat-'Naught shelters thee, who wilt not shelter Me.' I sought no more that after which I strayed In face of man or maid; But still within the little children's eyes Seems something, something that replies, They at least are for me, surely for me! I turned me to them very wistfully; But just as their young eyes grew sudden fair With dawning answers there, Their angel plucked them from me by the hair. `Come then, ye other children, Nature's--share With me' (said I) `your delicate fellowship; Let me greet you lip to lip, Let me twine with you caresses, Wantoning With our Lady-Mother's vagrant tresses, Banqueting With her in her wind-walled palace, Underneath her azured das, Quaffing, as your taintless way is, From a chalice Lucent-weeping out of the dayspring.' So it was done: I in their delicate fellowship was one-Drew the bolt of Nature's secrecies. I knew all the swift importings On the wilful face of skies; I knew how the clouds arise Spumed of the wild sea-snortings; All that's born or dies Rose and drooped with; made them shapers Of mine own moods, or wailful or divine; With them joyed and was bereaven. I was heavy with the even, When she lit her glimmering tapers Round the day's dead sanctities. I laughed in the morning's eyes. I triumphed and I saddened with all weather, Heaven and I wept together, And its sweet tears were salt with mortal mine; Against the red throb of its sunset-heart I laid my own to beat, And share commingling heat.

Ya no busco mi sueo interrogando un rostro de hombre o de mujer, mas quedan los ojos de los nios esperando: hay algo en ellos para m de veras. Y cuando mi ansiedad se prometa el dulce despertar de una respuesta, los ngeles venan y los llevaban por la senda opuesta. "Venid (clamaba), dadme la frescura de la Naturaleza que guardan vuestros labios de pureza; dejadme juguetear en las alturas; habitar el palacio azul de vuestra Madre, cuyas trenzas vagan por el espacio, y beber como un llanto de ambrosa el roco del da."

Y al fin lo consegu: fui recibido En su dulce amistad, y abr el sentido de los matices de la faz del cielo, de la nube naciente entre los velos de la espuma del mar. Nac con ella para morir con todo lo escondido. Me conform a sus huellas. Supe caer cuando la tarde cae al encender sus lmparas de duelo, y rer con la aurora de ojos suaves, y llorar con la lluvia de los cielos, y hacer mi corazn del sol gemelo.

Pero qu intilmente! Imposible entender lo que otro siente. Las cosas hablan un lenguaje arcano, incomprensible; es un silencio vano para mi inteligencia. Aunque pudiera prenderme de sus pechos como un nio, seguira mi sed de otro cario. Y noche a noche afuera oigo los Pasos que me dan alcance con medida carrera, deliberado avance, majestad inminente, que deja or la Voz de la otra parte: - "Nada podr llegar a contentarte mientras no me contentes."

But not by that, by that, was eased my human smart. In vain my tears were wet on Heaven's grey cheek. For ah! we know not what each other says, These things and I; in sound I speak-Their sound is but their stir, they speak by silences. Nature, poor stepdame, cannot slake my drouth; Let her, if she would owe me, Drop yon blue bosom-veil of sky, and show me The breasts o' her tenderness: Never did any milk of hers once bless My thirsting mouth. Nigh and nigh draws the chase, With unperturbed pace, Deliberate speed, majestic instancy; And past those noised Feet A voice comes yet more fleet-'Lo! naught contents thee, who content'st not Me.' Naked I wait Thy love's uplifted stroke! My harness piece by piece Thou hast hewn from me, And smitten me to my knee; I am defenceless utterly. I slept, methinks, and woke, And, slowly gazing, find me stripped in sleep. In the rash lustihead of my young powers, I shook the pillaring hours And pulled my life upon me; grimed with smears, I stand amid the dust o' the mounded years-My mangled youth lies dead beneath the heap. My days have crackled and gone up in smoke, Have puffed and burst as sun-starts on a stream. Yea, faileth now even dream The dreamer, and the lute the lutanist; Even the linked fantasies, in whose blossomy twist I swung the earth a trinket at my wrist, Are yielding; cords of all too weak account For earth with heavy griefs so overplussed. Ah! is Thy love indeed A weed, albeit an amaranthine weed, Suffering no flowers except its own to mount? Ah! must-Designer infinite!-Ah! must Thou char the wood ere Thou canst limn with it? My freshness spent its wavering shower i' the dust; And now my heart is as a broken fount, Wherein tear-drippings stagnate, spilt down ever From the dank thoughts that shiver Upon the sighful branches of my mind. Such is; what is to be? The pulp so bitter, how shall taste the rind? I dimly guess what Time in mists confounds; Yet ever and anon a trumpet sounds From the hid battlements of Eternity; Those shaken mists a space unsettle, then

Espero el golpe de tu amor, inerme. Pieza a pieza rompiste mi armadura. De rodillas estoy, y dudo al verme despierto y despojado. La fuerza juvenil de mi locura sacudi las columnas de las horas, y mi vida es un templo desplomado; montn de aos, multitud de escombros el ayer y el ahora. Los sueos mismos se han evaporado, y mis das son polvo. Las fantasas con que ataba el mundo me abandonan : son cuerdas muy delgadas para alzar una tierra recargada por el dolor profundo. Ay! que tu amor es hierba de dolores que slo deja florecer sus flores. Oh imaginero eterno, es suficiente! T quemas el carbn con que dibujas. Mi juventud es fuga de burbujas; mi corazn la fuente quebrada, donde no queda nada del llanto de mi mente.

Sea! mas qu amargura si la pulpa es amarga, me deparan las heces? Lo vislumbro en la fisura del teln de las nubes que rasgara_ el sonar de las trompas celestiales.

Aun sin poder reconocer sus reales, su prpura, su cetro, su guarida, le conozco y le entiendo. Se apresura; quiere mi corazn, quiere mi vida, quiere mi podredumbre, quiere mi oscuridad para su lumbre.

Round the half-glimpsed turrets slowly wash again. But not ere him who summoneth I first have seen, enwound With glooming robes purpureal, cypress-crowned; His name I know, and what his trumpet saith. Whether man's heart or life it be which yields Thee harvest, must Thy harvest-fields Be dunged with rotten death? Now of that long pursuit Comes on at hand the bruit; That Voice is round me like a bursting sea: `And is thy earth so marred, Shattered in shard on shard? Lo, all things fly thee, for thou fliest Me! Strange, piteous, futile thing! Wherefore should any set thee love apart? Seeing none but I makes much of naught' (He said), `And human love needs human meriting: How hast thou merited-Of all man's clotted clay the dingiest clot? Alack, thou knowest not How little worthy of any love thou art! Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble thee, Save Me, save only Me? All which I took from thee I did but take, Not for thy harms, But just that thou might'st seek it in My arms. All which thy child's mistake Fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home: Rise, clasp My hand, and come!' Halts by me that footfall: Is my gloom, after all, Shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly? "Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest, I am He Whom thou seekest! Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest Me."

Ya la persecucin est lograda. Y la Voz como un mar en torno fluye: -Crees que la tierra gime destrozada? Todo te huye, porque t me huyes.

Extraa, ftil cosa, miserable! dime, cmo podras ser amada?; no he hecho ya demasiado de tu nada para hacerte sin mrito, aceptable? Pizca de barro, acaso t no sabes cun poco amor te cabe? Quin hallars que te ame? Solamente yo, que cuanto te pido te he quitado, para que me lo pidas de prestado y lo d misericordiosamente.

Lo que t crees perdido est en mi casa levntate, toma mi mano y pasa. Los Pasos se han quedado junto al vano. Acaso oh t, tiniebla que me ofusca seas slo la sombra de Su mano! -"Oh loco, ciego, enfermo que te abrasas, pues buscas el amor, a m me buscas, y lo rechazas cuando me rechazas."