Lo fatal by Rubén Darío – performance and translation

"Flowered Skull" by Guto Bernardo is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

LO FATAL

DICHOSO el árbol, que es apenas sensitivo,
y más la piedra dura porque ésa ya no siente,
pues no hay dolor más grande que el dolor de ser vivo
ni mayor pesadumbre que la vida consciente.

Ser, y no saber nada, y ser sin rumbo cierto,
y el temor de haber sido y un futuro terror…
¡Y el espanto seguro de estar mañana muerto,
y sufrir por la vida y por la sombra y por

lo que no conocemos y apenas sospechamos,
y la carne que tienta con sus frescos racimos,
y la tumba que aguarda con sus fúnebres ramos
y no saber adónde vamos,
ni de dónde venimos!..

THE FATAL

How blissful is the tree that’s barely sentient,
and more so the hard stone, which doesn’t feel at all,
for there’s no pain greater than the pain of being born,
nor a heavier burden than a conscious life.

To be, and to know nothing, and to be without definite bearing,
and the fear of having been, and a future terror…
And the inevitable horror of tomorrow being dead,
and to suffer from life and from the shadow and from

what we don’t know, and barely suspect,
and the flesh that tempts with its fresh fruit-bunches
and the tomb that awaits with its funeral bouquets,
and to know not where we’re going,
nor whence we came!

—Rubén Darío (b. 1867, Nicaragua)
translated by MVM

The audio version in Spanish was performed by Marco V Morelli. The music was contributed by Douglas Duff, in collaboration.