Rhymes and Legends (Selection)/Rimas y Leyendas (selección) A Dual-Language Book

by Bécquer, Gustavo Adolfo; Appelbaum, Stanley

• ISBN13: 9780486447889
• ISBN10: 048644788X
• Edition: Bilingual
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-07-07
• Publisher: Dover Publications

Summary

The famed nineteenth-century lyric poet Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (1836-1870) is best known for the two works in this collection. Usually published together, they include his celebrated Rhymes--a suite of poems characterized by melancholy and bitterness. The romantic tales comprising Legends have varied themes: some depict supernatural and semi-religious events; others describe common occurrences from a romantic point of view.

Table of Contents

Introduction	vii
Rimas / Rhymes
``Yo se un himno gigante y extrano'' / ``I know a strange, gigantic hymn''	2	(1)
``Saeta que voladora'' / ``A flying arrow''	2	(2)
``Sacudimiento extrano'' / ``An odd jolt''	4	(4)
``No digais que agotado su tesoro'' / ``Don't say that, its treasure exhausted''	8	(2)
``Espiritu sin nombre'' / ``A nameless spirit''	10	(4)
``Como la brisa que la sangre orea'' / ``Like the breeze that airs and cools the blood''	14	(1)
``Del salon en el angulo oscuro'' / ``In the dark corner of the parlor''	14	(2)
``¡Cuando miro el azul horizonte'' / ``When I view the blue horizon''	16	(1)
``Besa el aura que gime blandamente'' / ``The softly moaning breeze kisses''	16	(1)
``Los invisibles atomos del aire'' / ``The invisible atoms of the air''	16	(2)
``---Yo soy ardiente, yo soy morena'' / ``'I am an ardent woman, I am a brunette'''	18	(1)
``Porque son, nina, tus ojos'' / ``Girl, because your eyes are''	18	(4)
``Tu pupila es azul y cuando ries'' / ``Your eyes are blue, and when you laugh''	22	(1)
``Te vi un punto, y flotando ante mis ojos'' / ``I glimpsed you only a moment, but the image of your eyes''	22	(2)
``Cendal flotante de leve bruma'' / ``A floating veil of light haze''	24	(1)
``Si al mecer las azules campanillas'' / ``If, when the blue bellflowers''	24	(2)
``Fatigada del baile'' / ``Wearied by the dance''	26	(1)
``Cuando sobre el pecho inclinas'' / ``When you let your melancholy head''	26	(2)
``¿Que es poesia?, dices mientras clavas'' / ``'What is poetry? you ask, while you fix''	28	(1)
``Por una mirada, un mundo'' / ``In exchange for a glance: a world''	28	(1)
``Dos rojas lenguas de fuego'' / ``Two red tongues of fire''	28	(1)
``Cuando en la noche te envuelven'' / ``When, at night, the gauzy wings''	28	(2)
``Voy contra mi interes al confesarlo'' / ``It's against my own interest to admit it''	30	(2)
``Despierta, tiemblo al mirarte'' / ``When you're awake, I tremble to behold you''	32	(2)
``Cuando entre la sombra oscura'' / ``When a voice, lost''	34	(2)
``Asomaba a sus ojos una lagrima'' / ``A tear appeared in her eyes''	36	(1)
``Nuestra pasion fue un tragico sainete'' / ``Our passion was a tragic short farce''	36	(1)
``Pasaba arrolladora en su hermosura'' / ``She passed by, devastating in her beauty''	36	(2)
``Es cuestion de palabras, y no obstante'' / ``It's a matter of words, and yet''	38	(1)
``Cruza callada, y son sus movimientos'' / ``She passes by in silence, and her movements are''	38	(1)
``Si de nuestros agravios en un libro'' / ``If the history of our mutual offenses''	38	(2)
``Antes que tu me morire: escondido'' / ``I shall die before you do: buried''	40	(1)
``¡Los suspiros son aire y van al aire!'' / ``Sighs are air and return to the air!''	40	(2)
``¿A que me lo decis? Lo se; es mudable'' / ``Why do you all tell me this? I know: she's fickle''	42	(1)
``Tu eras el huracan y yo la alta'' / ``You were the hurricane and I the lofty''	42	(1)
``Cuando me lo contaron senti el frio'' / ``When I was told about it, I felt the coldness''	42	(2)
``Deje la luz a un lado, y en el borde'' / ``I turned away from the daylight, and sat down''	44	(1)
``Como en un libro abierto'' / ``As in an open book''	44	(1)
``Me ha herido recatandose en las sombras'' / ``She wounded me as she hid in the shadows''	44	(1)
``Yo me he asomado a las profundas simas'' / ``I have peered into the deep chasms''	44	(2)
``Alguna vez la encuentro por el mundo'' / ``Sometimes I meet her in society''	46	(1)
``Lo que el salvaje que con torpe mano'' / ``Just as a savage with awkward hands''	46	(1)
``De lo poco de vida que me resta'' / ``Of the little life remaining to me''	46	(2)
``Olas gigantes que os rompeis bramando'' / ``You gigantic waves that break with a roar''	48	(1)
``Volveran las oscuras golondrinas'' / ``The dark swallows will return''	48	(2)
``Cuando volvemos las fugaces horas'' / ``When we resume the evocation''	50	(1)
``Entre el discorde estruendo de la orgia'' / ``Amid the discordant uproar of the wild party''	50	(1)
``Hoy como ayer, manana como hoy'' / ``Today as yesterday, tomorrow as today''	50	(2)
``Este armazon de huesos y pellejo'' / ``This framework of bones and skin''	52	(2)
``¿Quieres que de ese nectar delicioso'' / ``Do you want to enjoy this delicious nectar''	54	(1)
``Mi vida es un erial'' / ``My life is an untilled field''	54	(1)
``Al ver mis horas de fiebre'' / ``Who, seeing my hours of fever''	54	(2)
``Primero es un albor tremulo y vago'' / ``At first, it's a tremulous, vague glimmering''	56	(1)
``Como enjambre de abejas irritadas'' / ``Like a swarm of angry bees''	56	(1)
``Llego la noche y no encontre un asilo'' / ``Night fell, and I couldn't find shelter''	56	(2)
``¿De donde vengo? El mas horrible y aspero'' / ``Where have I come from? Seek out the most fearful''	58	(1)
``¡Que hermoso es ver el dia'' / ``How lovely it is to see day''	58	(2)
``No se lo que he sonado'' / ``I don't know what I dreamt''	60	(1)
``Al brillar un relampago nacemos'' / ``When a lightning bolt flashes we are born''	60	(1)
``¡Cuantas veces al pie de las musgosas'' / ``How often at the foot of the moss-covered''	60	(2)
``No dormia; vagaba en ese limbo'' / ``I wasn't sleeping; I was drifting in that limbo''	62	(2)
``Las ondas tienen vaga armonia'' / ``The waters have their vague harmony''	64	(2)
``Cerraron sus ojos'' / ``They closed her eyes''	66	(6)
``Las ropas descenidas'' / ``Their garments unfastened''	72	(1)
``¿Sera verdad que cuando toca el sueno'' / ``Can it be true that when slumber touches''	72	(2)
``En la imponente nave'' / ``In the imposing nave''	74	(129)
Leyendas / Legends
La cruz del diablo / The Devil's Cross	80	(30)
La ajorca de oro / The Golden Bracelet	110	(10)
El monte de las animas / The Forest of the Souls in Purgatory	120	(14)
El rayo de luna / The Moonbeam	134	(18)
El Miserere / The Miserere	152	(18)
La corza blanca / The White Doe	170	(33)
Alphabetical List of Spanish Verse First Lines	203