Me Piden Versos

Jose P. Rizal
Piden que pulse la lira
Ha tiempo callada y rota:
Si ya no arranco una nota
Ni mi musa ya me inspira!
Balbuce fra y delira
Si la tortura mi mente;
Cuando re solo miente;
Como miente su lamento:
Y es que en mi triste
aislamiento
Mi alma ni goza ni siente.
Hubo un tiempo ... y es
verdad!
Pero ya aquel tiempo huy,
En que vate me llamo
La indulgencia a la amistad.
Ahora de aquella edad
El recuerdo apenas resta
Como quedan de una fiesta
Los misteriosos sonidos
Que retienen los odos
Del bullicio de la orquesta.
Soy planta apenas crecida
Arrancada del Oriente,
Donde es perfume el
ambiente,
Donde es un sueo la vida:
Patria que jams se olvida!
Enseronme a cantar
Las aves, con su trinar;
Con su rumor, las cascadas;
Y en sus playas dilatadas,
Los murmullos de la mar.
Mientras en la infancia ma
Pude a su sol sonrer,
Dentro de mi pecho hervir
Volcn de fuego senta;
Vate fu, porque quera
Con mis versos, con mi
aliento,
Decir al rpido viento:
Vuela; su fama pregona!
Cntala de zona en zona;
De la tierra al firmamento!

La dej! ... mis patrios lares.

Arboldespojado y seco!
Ya no repiten el eco
De mis pasados cantares
Yo cruc los vastos mares
Ansiando cambiar de suerte,
Y mi locura no advierte
Que en vez del bien que
buscaba,
El mar conmigo surcaba
El espectro de la muerte.
Toda mis hermosa ilusin,
Amor, entusiasmo, anhelo,
All quedan bajo el cielo
De tan florida regin:
No pidis al corazn
Cantos de amor, que esta
yerto;
Porque en medio del desierto
Donde discurro sin calma,
Siento que agoniza el alma
Y mi nmen est muerto.

They Ask Me For Verses

Translated in English by Nick
Joaquin

I
They bid me strike the lyre
so long now mute and
broken,
but not a note can I waken
nor will my muse inspire!
She stammers coldly and
babbles
when tortured by my mind;
she lies when she laughs and
thrills
as she lies in her lamentation,
for in my sad isolation
my soul nor frolics nor feels.

II
There was a time, 'tis true,
but now that time has
vanished
when indulgent love or
friendship
called me a poet too.
Now of that time there
lingers
hardly a memory,
as from a celebration
some mysterious refrain
that haunts the ears will
remain
of the orchestra's actuation.

III
A scarce-grown plant I seem,
uprooted from the Orient,
where perfume is the
atmosphere
and where life is a dream.

O land that is never

forgotten!
And these have taught me to
sing:
the birds with their melody,
the cataracts with their force
and, on the swollen shores,
the murmuring of the sea.

IV
While in my childhood days
I could smile upon her
sunshine,
I felt in my bosom, seething,
a fierce volcano ablaze.
A poet was I, for I wanted
with my verses, with my
breath,
to say to the swift wind: "Fly
and propagate her renown!
Praise her from zone to zone,
from the earth up to the sky!"

V
I left her! My native hearth,
a tree despoiled and
shriveled,
no longer repeats the echo
of my old songs of mirth.
I sailed across the vast ocean,
craving to change my fate,
not noting, in my madness,
that, instead of the weal I
sought,
the sea around me wrought
the spectre of death and
sadness.

VI
The dreams of younger
hours,

love, enthusiasm, desire,

have been left there under the
skies
of that fair land of flowers.
Oh, do not ask of my heart
that languishes, songs of
love!
For, as without peace I tread
this desert of no surprises,
I feel that my soul agonizes
and that my spirit is dead.

Pinatutula Ako
Isinalin sa Tagalog ni Iigo
Ed. Regalado
Iyong hinihiling, lira ay
tugtugin
bagaman sira na't laon nang
naumid
ayaw nang tumipa ang
nagtampong bagting
pati aking Musa ay nagtago
narin.
Malungkot na nota ang
nasnaw na himig
waring hinuhugot dusa at
hinagpis
at ang alingawngaw ay
umaaliwiw
sa sarili na ring puso at
damdamin.
kaya nga't sa gitna niring
aking hapis
yaring kalul'wa ko'y parang
namamanhid.
Nagkapanahon nga ...
kaipala'y, tunay
ang mga araw na matuling
nagdaan
nang ako sa akong Musa'y
napamahal
lagi na sa akin, ngiti'y
nakalaan.

Ngunit marami nang lumipas

na araw
sa aking damdamin alaala'y
naiwan
katulad ng saya at
kaligayahan
kapag dumaan na'y may
hiwagang taglay
na mga awiting animo'y
lumulutang
sa aking gunitang malabo,
malamlam.
Katulad ko'y binhing binunot
na tanim
sa nilagakan kong Silangang
lupain
pawang lahat-lahat ay
kagiliw-giliw
manirahan doo'y sayang
walang maliw.

Ang bayan kong ito, na

lubhang marikit
sa diwa't puso ko'y hindi
mawawaglit
ibong malalaya,
nangagsisiawit
mulang kabundukan, lagaslas
ng tubig
ang halik ng dagat sa
buhangin mandin
lahat ng ito'y, hindi
magmamaliw.
Nang ako'y musmos pa'y
aking natutuhang
masayang batiin ang sikat ng
araw
habang sa diwa ko'y waring
naglalatang
silakbo ng isang kumukulong
bulkan.

Laon nang makata, kaya't ako

nama'y
laging nagnanais na aking
tawagan

sa diwa at tula, hanging

nagduruyan:
"Ikalat mo lamang ang
kanyang pangalan,

angking kabantugan ay
ipaghiyawan
mataas, mababa'y, hayaang
magpisan".