Tres Arboles

Tres árbo1es caidos
quedaron en la orilla del sendero.
El lenador los o1vidó, y conversan,
apretados de amor, como tres ciegos.
El sol de ocaso pone
Su sangre viva en los hendidos lenos
¡Y se llevan los vientos la fragancia
de su costado abierto!
Uno, torcido, tiende
Su brazo immenso y de follaje trémulo
Lacia otro, y sus heridas
Como dos ojos son, llenos de reugo.
El lenador los o1vidó. La noche
vendrá. Estaré con ellos.
Recibiré en mi corazón sus mansas
Resinas. Me serán como de fuego.
Y mudos y cenidos
Nos halle el dia en un montón de duelo.

by Gabriela Mistral. John A. Crow, John T. Reed, John E. Englekirk, Irving A. Leonard, An Anthology of Spanish-American Literature. New York: Meridith Corp., 1968. This poem offers the student a chance to translate. The vocabulary is simple, yet many synonyms are possible. There is no rhyme. Working in big chunks is advisable. Exploring all the possibilities for each verse or stanza, and then choosing the best combinations is one method. I offer my translation as only one of the many possible.

Three Trees
Three trees, struck down, were left by the
edge of the road.
The woodsman forgot them, so, they spoke,
clutching one and other out of love, like three blind men.

The dying sun spills its fiery blood
on the wounded logs,
While the fragrance of their open sides
is lifted away by the winds!
One, twisted, extends its mightly arm
with trembling leaves toward another,
and its wounds beg like
two pleading eyes.
They woodsman forgot them. Night is coming.
I will be one with them. Their mild resins
will flow into my heart. To me they’ll burn like fire.
And—day will find us, silent and clinging
together, in a heap of sorrow.

Translated by Jill Savitt
TOPIC : Poem in Spanish translated to English  SOURCE : Linguistic Studies ** http://languages.forumactif.org/