15/5/22, 21:48 Francis Thompson - El lebrel

El Lebrel del Cielo

(The Hound of Heaven),
de Francis Thompson

Versión en español de Carlos A. Sáenz

Le huía noche y día I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;

I fled Him, down the arches of the years;

a través de los arcos de los años,

y le huía a porfía

I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways

Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears

por entre los tortuosos aledaños

I hid from Him, and under running laughter.

de mi alma, y me cubría

con la niebla del llanto

o con la carcajada, como un manto.

He escalado esperanzas, Up vistaed hopes I sped;

me he hundido en el abismo deleznable, And shot, precipitated,

Adown Titanic glooms of
chasmed fears,
para huir de los Pasos que me alcanzan:

From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.

persecución sin prisa, imperturbable,

But with unhurrying chase,

inminencia prevista y sin contraste.

And unperturbed pace,
Los oigo resonar... y aún más fuerte

Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
una Voz que me advierte: They beat--and a Voice beat

-"Todo te deja, porque me dejaste". More instant than the Feet--

'All things betray thee, who betrayest Me.'

Golpeaba las ventanas

que ofrecen al proscrito sus encantos

I pleaded, outlaw-wise,
y temblando de espanto

By many a hearted casement, curtained red,
pensaba que el Amor que me persigue, Trellised with intertwining charities;

si al final me consigue, (For, though I knew His love Who followed,

no dejará brillar más que su llama; Yet was I sore adread

Lest, having Him, I must have naught beside).

y si alguna ventana se entreabría,

But, if one little casement parted wide,

el soplo de su acceso la cerraba.

The gust of His approach would clash it
to.
El miedo no alcanzaba

Fear wist not to evade, as Love wist to pursue.
a huir cuanto el Amor me perseguía.

Me evadí de este mundo;

Across the margent of the world I fled,
violé la puerta de oro de los cielos,
And troubled the gold gateways of the
stars,
pidiendo amparo a sus sonoros velos,

Smiting for shelter on their clanged bars;
y arranqué notas dulces y un profundo

Fretted to dulcet jars
rumor de plata al astro plateado. And silvern chatter the
pale ports o' the moon.

Al alba dije "Ven”; "ven", a la tarde, I said to Dawn: Be sudden--to Eve: Be soon;

"escondedme de aqueste Enamorado With thy young skiey blossoms heap me over

From this tremendous Lover--

de miedo que me aguarde".

Tenté a sus servidores,

Float thy vague veil about me,
lest He see!

I tempted all His servitors, but to find

y sólo hallé traición en su constancia.

My own betrayal in their constancy,
Para Él la fe; de mí perseguidores

In faith to Him their fickleness to me,
con falsa rectitud y leal falacia. Their traitorous trueness, and their loyal deceit.

Pedí volar a todo lo ligero, To all swift things for swiftness did I sue;

Clung to the whistling mane of every wind.

asiéndome a las crines del pampero,

y aunque se deslizaba

But whether they swept, smoothly fleet,

The long savannahs of the blue;

por la azul lejanía,

Or whether, Thunder-driven,
y el trueno hacía resonar su carro,

They clanged his chariot 'thwart a heaven,
y zapateaba el rayo, Plashy with flying lightnings round the spurn
o' their feet:--

el miedo no alcanzaba Fear wist not to evade as Love wist to pursue.

Still with unhurrying chase,

a huir cuanto el Amor me perseguía.

And unperturbed pace,

Persecución sin prisa, imperturbable,

Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,

majestuosa inminencia. En las veredas

Came on the following Feet,
dejan los Pasos que la Voz me hable:

- "Nada te hospedará si no me hospedas"

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15/5/22, 21:48 Francis Thompson - El lebrel
And a Voice above their beat--
'Naught shelters thee, who wilt not shelter Me.'

Ya no busco mi sueño interrogando I sought no more that after which I strayed

un rostro de hombre o de mujer, mas In face of man or maid;

quedan

But still within the little children's eyes

Seems something, something that replies,

los ojos de los niños esperando:

They at least are for me, surely for me!
hay algo en ellos para mí de veras.

I turned me to them very wistfully;

Y cuando mi ansiedad se prometía

But just as their young eyes grew sudden
fair
el dulce despertar de una respuesta,

With dawning answers there,
los ángeles venían

Their angel plucked them from me by the hair.

y los llevaban por la senda opuesta. `Come then, ye other children, Nature's--share

"Venid (clamaba), dadme la frescura With me' (said I) `your delicate fellowship;

Let me greet you lip to lip,

de la Naturaleza

Let me twine with you caresses,

que guardan vuestros labios de pureza;

Wantoning

dejadme juguetear en las alturas;

With our Lady-Mother's vagrant tresses,
habitar el palacio

Banqueting
azul de vuestra Madre, cuyas trenzas With her in
her wind-walled palace,

vagan por el espacio, Underneath her azured daïs,

y beber como un llanto de ambrosía Quaffing, as your taintless way is,

From a chalice

el rocío del día."

Lucent-weeping
out of the dayspring.'

So it was done:

fellowship was one--
I in their delicate
Drew the bolt of Nature's secrecies.

Y al fin lo conseguí: fui recibido I knew all the swift importings

On the wilful face of skies;

En su dulce amistad, y abrí el sentido

I knew how the clouds arise

de los matices de la faz del cielo,

Spumed of the wild sea-snortings;

de la nube naciente entre los velos

All that's born or dies
de la espuma del mar. Nací con ella Rose and drooped with;
made them shapers

para morir con todo lo escondido. Of mine own moods, or wailful or divine;

Me conformé a sus huellas. With them joyed and was bereaven.

I was heavy with the even,

Supe caer cuando la tarde cae

When she lit her glimmering
tapers
al encender sus lámparas de duelo,

Round the day's dead sanctities.

y reír con la aurora de ojos suaves,

I laughed in the morning's eyes.
y llorar con la lluvia de los cielos,

I triumphed and I saddened with
all weather,
y hacer mi corazón del sol gemelo. Heaven and I wept together,

And its sweet tears were salt with mortal mine;

Against the red throb of its sunset-heart

I laid my own to beat,

And share commingling

heat.

Pero ¡qué inútilmente!

But not by that, by that, was eased my human smart.
Imposible entender lo que otro siente.

In vain my tears were wet on Heaven's grey cheek.

Las cosas hablan un lenguaje arcano, For ah! we know not what each other says,

incomprensible; es un silencio vano These things and I; in sound I speak--

para mi inteligencia. Aunque pudiera Their sound is but their stir, they speak
by silences.

Nature, poor stepdame, cannot slake my drouth;

prenderme de sus pechos como un niño,

Let her, if she would owe me,

seguiría mi sed de otro cariño.

Drop yon blue bosom-veil of sky, and show me

Y noche a noche afuera

The breasts o' her tenderness:
oigo los Pasos que me dan alcance
bless

Never did any milk of hers once
con medida carrera, My thirsting mouth.

deliberado avance, Nigh and nigh draws the chase,

majestad inminente, With unperturbed pace,

Deliberate speed, majestic instancy;

que deja oír la Voz de la otra parte:

And past those noised Feet
- "Nada podrá llegar a contentarte

A voice comes yet more fleet--

mientras no me contentes."

'Lo! naught contents thee, who
content'st not Me.'

Espero el golpe de tu amor, inerme. Naked I wait Thy love's uplifted stroke!

My harness piece by piece Thou hast hewn
from me,
Pieza a pieza rompiste mi armadura.

And smitten me to my knee;

De rodillas estoy, y dudo al verme

I am defenceless utterly.

despierto y despojado.

I slept, methinks, and woke,
La fuerza juvenil de mi locura

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15/5/22, 21:48 Francis Thompson - El lebrel

sacudió las columnas de las horas, And, slowly gazing, find me stripped in sleep.
y mi vida es un templo desplomado; In the rash lustihead of my young powers,

I shook the pillaring hours

montón de años, multitud de escombros

grimed with smears,

And pulled my life upon me;
el ayer y el ahora.

I stand amid the dust o' the mounded years--
Los sueños mismos se han evaporado, My mangled youth lies dead beneath the heap.

y mis días son polvo. My days have crackled and gone up in smoke,

Las fantasías con que ataba el mundo Have puffed and burst as sun-starts on a stream.

Yea, faileth now even dream

me abandonan : son cuerdas muy delgadas

The dreamer, and the lute the lutanist;

para alzar una tierra recargada

Even the linked fantasies, in whose blossomy
twist
por el dolor profundo.

I swung the earth a trinket at my wrist,
¡ Ay! que tu amor es hierba de dolores

Are yielding; cords of all too weak account
que sólo deja florecer sus flores. For earth with heavy griefs so overplussed.

¡Oh imaginero eterno, es suficiente! Ah! is Thy love indeed

Tú quemas el carbón con que dibujas. A weed, albeit an amaranthine weed,

Suffering no flowers except its own to
mount?
Mi juventud es fuga de burbujas;

Ah! must--

mi corazón la fuente

Designer infinite!--
quebrada,
Ah! must Thou char
the wood ere Thou canst limn with it?
donde no queda nada

My freshness spent its wavering shower i' the dust;
del llanto de mi mente. And now my heart is as a broken fount,

Wherein tear-drippings stagnate, spilt down ever

From the dank thoughts that shiver

Upon the sighful branches of my mind.

¡Sea! mas ¿qué amargura Such is; what is to be?

si la pulpa es amarga, me deparan The pulp so bitter, how

shall taste the rind?

I dimly guess what Time in mists confounds;

las heces? Lo vislumbro en la fisura

Yet ever and anon a trumpet sounds
del telón de las nubes que rasgara_

From the hid battlements of Eternity;
el sonar de las trompas celestiales. Those shaken mists a space unsettle,
then


again.
Aun sin poder reconocer sus reales, Round the half-glimpsed turrets slowly wash

su púrpura, su cetro, su guarida, But not ere him who summoneth

I first have seen, enwound

le conozco y le entiendo. Se apresura;

With glooming robes purpureal, cypress-crowned;

quiere mi corazón, quiere mi vida,

His name I know, and what his trumpet saith.

quiere mi podredumbre,

Whether man's heart or life it be which yields

quiere mi oscuridad para su lumbre.

Thee harvest, must Thy harvest-fields
Be dunged with rotten death?

Ya la persecución está lograda. Now of that long pursuit

Comes on at hand the bruit;

Y la Voz como un mar en torno fluye:

That Voice is round me like a
bursting sea:
-¿Crees que la tierra gime destrozada?

`And is thy earth so marred,
Todo te huye, porque tú me huyes.

Shattered in shard on shard?

fliest Me!
Lo, all things fly thee, for thou

¡Extraña, fútil cosa, miserable! Strange, piteous, futile thing!

Wherefore should any set thee love apart?

dime, ¿cómo podrías ser amada?;

Seeing none but I makes much of naught'
(He said),
¿no he hecho ya demasiado de tu nada

`And human love needs human meriting:
para hacerte sin mérito, aceptable?

How hast thou merited--
Pizca de barro, ¿acaso tú no sabes

Of all man's clotted clay the dingiest clot?

cuán poco amor te cabe? Alack, thou knowest not

How little worthy of any love thou art!

¿Quién hallarás que te ame? Solamente

Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble thee,

yo, que cuanto te pido te he quitado,

Save Me, save only Me?

para que me lo pidas de prestado

I did but take,

All which I took from thee
y lo dé misericordiosamente.

Not for thy harms,

But just that thou might'st seek it in My arms.

Lo que tú crees perdido está en mi casa

All which thy child's mistake
levántate, toma mi mano y pasa.
for thee at home:

Fancies as lost, I have stored
Los Pasos se han quedado junto al vano. Rise, clasp My hand, and come!'

Acaso ¡oh tú, tiniebla que me ofusca Halts by me that footfall:

seas sólo la sombra de Su mano! Is my gloom, after all,

Shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly?

-"Oh loco, ciego, enfermo que te abrasas,

"Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest,

pues buscas el amor, a mí me buscas,

I am He Whom thou seekest!

y lo rechazas cuando me rechazas."

Thou dravest love from thee,
who dravest Me."

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