I must clarify that the English translation of the poems, originally in Spanish and Japanese, have the terrible weakness that they are simple literal translations, lacking the necessary poetic reworking to adjust the metric, rhyme and cadence that they have in their original languages .
Despite that, the best possible work has been done within my limited capabilities and I hope that publicizing the translation of this work will be of benefit to all.
Source
English: |
The Forest, only the forestUnder this canopy where even the air walks on tiptoe,under this green world of veiled echoes, where the pines are the absolute owners I feel more deeply the pulse of the centuries. The breeze barely leaves the shadow of its passage overturned in a language expressed in aromas born of these tiny leaves compact and arrogant; born from these logs erect as a dart thrown towards the zenith. Infinite crowd born almost there where the waves touch the torso of the cliffs. Plant army scaling the rough slopes of this land in whose entrails infernal gods struggle. The arteries of fire may die there where the roots of these trees descend which are like the miracle of a flora of islands. Pines of this island world erected on volcanoes, pines of these mountains where you were born Chieko with the almond eyes, of the tiny eyebrows like black rainbows, multiplied pines climbing to crown the peaks. There is a single green here, a gloomy green that almost makes shade at the foot of these trees of unknown soul, of body of color of the bells of secular cathedrals. It does not matter that the bombs, that warlike fires, that the shrapnel would have swept your clothes, if then a devout hand hewn the wounds and planted the son again of the vegetable father whose stump bled his threads of resins. You are all the severe matsuyamas, the pure matsuyamas the owners of the mountains, fathers of the streams, virgin root of the great rivers born shyly to later expand through admirable channels. Trembling forests with a resin soul under your canopy sings the sign of a race. |
Spanish: |
El Bosque, solo el bosqueBajo esta fronda donde hasta el aire anda de puntillas,bajo este mundo verde de velados ecos, donde los pinos son los absolutos dueños siento más hondamente el pulso de los siglos. La brisa apenas deja la sombra de su paso volcada en un lenguaje expresado en aromas nacido de estas menudas hojas compactas y arrogantes; nacido de estos troncos erectos como un dardo lanzado hacia el cenit. Multitud infinita nacida casi allí donde las olas tocan el torso de los acantilados. Ejército vegetal que escala las ásperas laderas de esta tierra en cuya entraña forcejean dioses infernales. Las arterias de fuego quizás mueren allí hasta donde descienden las raíces de estos árboles que son como el milagro de una flora de islas. Pinos de este mundo insular erigido sobre volcanes, pinos de estas montanas donde naciste tu Chieko de los ojos almendrados, de las menudas cejas como negros arcoiris, pinos multiplicados trepando hasta coronar las cumbres. Hay aquí un solo verde, un verde penumbroso que casi se hace sombra a los pies de estos árboles de alma desconocida, de cuerpo del color de las campanas de seculares catedrales. No importa que las bombas, que bélicos incendios, que la metralla, hubiesen barrido tus vestiduras, si luego mano devota restañó las heridas e hizo plantar de nuevo el hijo del padre vegetal cuyo muñón sangró sus hilos de resinas. Sois todos los severos matsuyamas, los puros matsuyamas los dueños de los montes, padres de los arroyos, raíz virginal de los grandes ríos nacidos tímidamente para luego expandirse por admirables cauces. Trémulos bosques con alma de resina bajo tu fronda canta el signo de una raza. |
Japanese: |
森，ただ森だけが空気でさえも爪先立って歩くこの繁みの下，ここでは私が絶対君主なのであるが， かくれた山彦が支配するこの緑の世界の下で 私は幾世紀にもわたる脈動をしみじみ感じとる。 密虫して尊大にみえる これらの小さな葉から生れ出で， 天空に向って投げられた投槍のように 直立したこれらの幹から生れ出る 香気という形で表現される一種の言語で そよ風は自分が通ったあとをかすかに物語って行く。 波が断Mの胴部にぶちあたるあの辺で 無限の樹木の群が生れ出てくる。 その内部で灼熱地獄の神々が頑張っている この土地の険しい坂をよじ登る植物の軍隊。 島々の植物誌の奇蹟のようである これらの木々の根がとどいている あのあたりで火のすじは多分行き止りになっているのだろう。 火山の上に建設されたこの岛の世界の松， お前，アーモンドのような眼を持ち， 黒い弓形虹状の小さな眉毛をもった智忠子の 生れ故郷のこれらの山地の松， 何部にも増殖した松は登って行き，頂上をすっぽり覆ったのだ。 ここにはただの艰純な緑がある，未知の魂 幾世紀の風雪にたえて来た大寺院の 鐘の色に似た体をもつこれらの木々の根木で 陰となっている緑色の摊影がここにある。 もし信心深い手が倨を止血し， その折れ枝がやにの血流を滴下した親木の 子を新に植えつけておいたならば， 爆弾や，戦災や，榴弾が たとえお前の衣服を一掃したとしても 問題ではないのだ。 君逮は皆きびしい松山の松であり， きよらかな松なのだ，そして山々の主であり そっと生れ出て，後には堂々たる河味を流れ ふくれ上る大河の無垢の源流である小川の うみの親なのである。 やにという魂をもった膜える森よ， お前の繁みの下で民族の運命が歌っているのだ。 |
Due to very different circumstances, I found myself with a book that I had saved, it is a somewhat peculiar poetry book in my library, since it is the bilingual edition in Spanish and Japanese of the Venezuelan poet Pascual Venegas Filardo. The work was published for the first time in 1961, but this one I have here is the 1968 edition, published in Kyoto by Gaikokugo Daigaku and consists of 76 pages, bound in hardcover.
The foreword to this book of poems was written by the Venezuelan Ambassador to Japan, J. M. Pérez Morales. In fact, what is most curious to me is that the book I have was from the embassy library ... don't go after me with the excommunication order for stealing books, I really didn't! I think the book was disincorporated or something similar, and then it passed through several hands until it came to me.
I have, to some extent, some affinity with some traits of Eastern cultures, there are several things that I like and in recent times I dusted off a few of them. I thought about checking if the book was available to share, but I only found fragments online, hence the idea of digitizing it and applying OCR to it to share it as it is in print, in both languages. Later on a suggestion from a reader, I decided to translate it into English, even if it is just to give an idea of what the beautiful poems in this book want to express.
Sources:
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