One art

BY ELIZABETH BISHOP
The art of losing isnt hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster

of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isnt hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:

places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mothers watch. And look! my last, or

next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isnt hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,

some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasnt a disaster.

Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture

I love) I shant have lied. Its evident
the art of losings not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

Elizabeth Bishop, One Art from The Complete Poems 1926-1979. Copyright
1979, 1983 by
Alice Helen Methfessel. Reprinted with the permission of Farrar, Straus &
Giroux, LLC.
Source: The Complete Poems 1926-1979 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1983)
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Un arte
El arte de perder no es difcil adquirirlo.
Tantas cosas parecen empeadas
en perderse, que su prdida no es un desastre.
Pierde algo cada da. Acepta el tumulto
de llaves de puertas perdidas, la hora malgastada.
El arte de perder no es difcil adquirirlo.
Practica entonces perder ms an, y ms rpido:
lugares, nombres, y el sitio al que se supona
que viajaras. Nada de esto ser un desastre.
Perd el reloj de mi madre, y -mira!- la ltima, o
penltima de tres casas que amaba se fue.
El arte de perder no es difcil adquirirlo.
Perd dos ciudades, ambas adorables. Y, ms ampliamente,
algunos sitios de los que era duea, dos ros, un continente.
Los echo de menos, pero no fue un desastre.
-Hasta al perderte a ti (la voz bromista, un gesto
de amor) no habr mentido. Es evidente que
el arte de perder no es demasiado difcil de adquirir
aunque parezca por momentos (Escrbelo!) un desastre.