A Fun Poem/Un Poema Entretenido
If you're familiar with Shel Silverstein in English, you'll have some idea of what kind of cool vocabulary you might come across reading him in Spanish! One of my favorites of Silverstein's is this poem about storks (cigüeñas) from his book "Falling Up." The Spanish translation of the book is titled "Batacazos," which has various meanings, including "unexpected falls." Here is the Spanish version of the poem, as well as my translation of this translation. [For the original English poem, see "Falling Up"] "Batacazos" is currently not available as a Kindle book, but maybe if enough of us click on the link "I'd like to read this book on Kindle" on the book's Amazon page it'll become available in that format in the future. Enjoy!
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Shel Silverstein
(traducción: Daniel Aguirre Oteiza) Sabes que la cigüeña trae a los bebés. Pero ¿sabías también
que actúa al revés
y recoge a la gente de más edad cuando le llega la hora de marchar? Baja de repente
y se lleva a los ancianos,
sale aleteando por la puerta de detrás y los lleva por el aire al taller lejano,
donde los fabricaron años atrás.
Allí las arrugas les planchan, los huesos se los refuerzan, los músculos les tonifican y toda la piel les tensan. Les enderezan la espalda y les ponen dientes nuevos, y un corazón les implantan que funciona con esmero. Después de borrarles la memoria les reducen a todos su tamaño y la cigüeña repite la historia de traer recién nacidos cada año. |
The Story of the
Stork
Shel Silverstein (THS translation of the Spanish)
You know that the stork brings the
babies.
But, did you also know
that it performs the
reverse
and collects the older people
when their time
comes to leave?
It comes down suddenly
and carries away the elderly
it leaves flapping through the back
door
and carries them
through the air
to a distant
workshop
where they were made years ago.
There the wrinkles are ironed
the bones are reinforced
the muscles are
toned up
and all the skin is
tightened.
They straighten the
back
and they put in new
teeth
and they implant a
heart
which functions
meticulously.
After erasing their memories
all are reduced in their size
and the stork repeats the story
of bringing newborns every year.
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