Si ves un monte de espumas, (If you see a mountain of foam)
Es mi verso lo que ves: (It is my verse that you see)
Mi verso es un monte, y es (My verse is a mountain)
Un abanico de plumas (a fan of feathers)
Mi verso es como un puñal (My verse is like a dagger)
Que por el puño echa flor: (That sends out a flower for the fist)
Mi verso es un surtidor (My verse is a fountain)
Que da un agua de coral. (That gives water from coral
Mi verso es de un verde claro (My verse is a bright green)
Y de un carmín encendido: (and from a fiery color)
Mi verso es un ciervo herido (My verse is an injured deer)
Que busca en el monte amparo. (That looks for the sheltering mountain)
Mi verso al valiente agrada: (My verse, the valiant pleasure)
Mi verso, breve y sincero, (My verse, short and sincere)
Es del vigor del acero (is the strength of steel)
Con que se funde la espada. (with the establishing of the sword)
~José Martí (with apologies to the master for a poor translation)


How can I then return in happy plight,
That am debarr'd the benefit of rest?
When day's oppression is not eased by night,
But day by night, and night by day, oppress'd?
And each, though enemies to either's reign,
Do in consent shake hands to torture me;
The one by toil, the other to complain
How far I toil, still farther off from thee.
I tell the day, to please them thou art bright
And dost him grace when clouds do blot the heaven:
So flatter I the swart-complexion'd night,
When sparkling stars twire not thou gild'st the even.
But day doth daily draw my sorrows longer
And night doth nightly make grief's strength seem stronger.
~William Shakespeare