THE NATIVITY OF CHRIST
by: Luis de Argote y Góngora
(1561-1627)
 ODAY
from the Aurora's bosom
- A pink has fallen -- a crimson blossom;
- And oh, how glorious rests the hay
- On which the fallen blossom lay!
-
- When silence gently had unfurled
- Her mantle over all below,
- And crowned with witner's frost and snow,
- Night swayed the sceptre of the world,
- Amid the gloom descending slow,
- Upon the monarch's frozen bosom
- A pink has fallen, -- a crimson blossom.
-
- The only flower the Virgin bore
- (Aurora fair) within her breast,
- She gave to earth, yet still possessed
- Her virgin blossom as before;
- That hay that colored drop caressed,--
- Received upon its faithful bosom
- That single flower, -- a crimson blossom.
-
- The manger, unto which 'twas given,
- Even amid wintry snows and cold,
- Within its fostering arms to fold
- The blushing flower that fell from heaven,
- Was a canopy of gold,--
- A downy couch, -- where on its bosom
- That flower had fallen, -- that crimson blossom.
--Translated by H.W. Longfellow
|
"The Nativity of Christ"
is reprinted from Hispanic Anthology: Poems Translated from
the Spanish by English and North American Poets. Ed. Thomas
Walsh. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1920. |
MORE POEMS BY LUIS DE ARGOTE Y GÓNGORA |
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