Sa kamatayan ng isang makata
Ni Ruben Dario, makata ng Nicaragua
Malayang salin ni Gregorio V. Bituin Jr.
13 pantig bawat taludtod
Tanging mga sisne lang ng araw na iyon
Ang nakakita sa lumikha ng diwang angkin
At doon sa Lawa ng Hiwaga’y naglaho
Yaong barkong itim na tumahak sa dilim.
Ang kasuotan ng bunying makata’y kanya
Na nakatahi’y bunying bulaklak ng flordelis
At gayak yaong dahon ng lawrel at tinik
Nakalarawan sa noo niyang mapanglaw.
Sa malayong Lungsod ng Bathala’y natayo
Ang tronong may katiwasayang walang hanggan
Sa rabaw ng opyo - sa parang ng pahinga;
At habang palapit sa balabal ng nasa,
Pinatunayan niya ang dakilang lugod,
Habang batid yaong biyayang di mabunyag
Pinagmamasdan ang kurus na pasan-pasan
At bago pa yaong banal na Mananakop
Bangkay nang malamig ang bumagsak na Ispingks.
On the Death of a Poet
By Ruben Dario
Only the Swans that day
Saw the high maker of our thoughts embark
And on the Lake Mysterious fade away
In the black ship that crosses to the dark.
The poet's robe was his,
Embroidered with illustrious fleurs-de-lys;
And laurel leaf and thorn
His sad prefigured forehead did adorn.
Afar God's City rose,
Where everlasting Peace her throne has reared
Above the poppy-meadows of repose;
And as the coat of his desire he neared,
He proved divine delight, knew grace untold,
Beheld the Cross uplifted and, before
That sacred Conqueror,
The fallen Sphinx, a corpse already cold.
* Ruben Dario (January 18, 1867 – February 6, 1916) was a Nicaraguan poet who initiated the modernismo (modernism) that flourished at the end of the 19th century. He has influence on 20th-century Spanish literature and journalism.
