Lo Callado del Alma / The Quiet of the Soul

por Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz  (Jan 24, 2014)  [English below]

DC_unbinding-the-heartEl sueño todo, en fin, lo poseía;
todo, en fin, el silencio lo ocupaba:
aun el ladrón dormía;
aun el amante no se desvelaba. […]

El alma, pues, suspensa
del exterior gobierno,–en que ocupada
en material empleo,
o bien o mal da el día por gastado–,
solamente dispensa
remota, si del todo separada
no, a los de muerte temporal opresos
lánguidos miembros, sosegados huesos,
los gajes del calor vegetativo,
el cuerpo siendo, en sosegada calma,
un cadáver con alma,
muerto a la vida y a la muerte vivo,
de lo segundo dando tardas señas
el del reloj humano
vital volante que, si no con mano,
con arterial concierto, unas pequeñas
muestras, pulsando, manifiesta lento
de su bien regulado movimiento.

Este, pues, miembro rey y centro vivo
de espíritus vitales,
con su asociado respirante fuelle
–pulmón, que imán del viento es atractivo,
que en movimientos nunca desiguales
o comprimiendo ya, o ya dilatando
el musculoso, claro arcaduz blando,
hace que en el resuelle
el que le circunscribe fresco ambiente
que impele ya caliente,
y él venga su expulsión haciendo activo
pequeños robos al calor nativo,
algún tiempo llorados,
nunca recuperados,
si ahora no sentidos de su dueño,
que, repetido, no hay robo pequeño–;
éstos, pues, de mayor, como ya digo,
excepción, uno y otro fiel testigo,
la vida aseguraban,
mientras con mudas voces impugnaban
la información, callados, los sentidos
–con no replicar sólo defendidos–,
y la lengua que, torpe, enmudecía,
con no poder hablar los desmentía.


–Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz del poema Primero Sueño publicado en 1692.  [Comic creativo por Dharma Comics ;-)]


____________________________



Sleep did all, at last, possess;
all, at last, did silence take;
still the robber took his rest;
still the lover did not awake. […]

The soul, then, in suspense
of exterior governance,
— the material employment
where day, for good or bad, is spent —
can scarcely just dispense
remotely, if not all,
the death-oppressed and temporal
languid members and still bones,
the vegetative heat’s extensions,
the body being, in peace and whole,
a cadaver with soul,
dead to life, to death alive,
of the latter giving tardy signs
those beats the human timepiece gives
from the vital flywheel without hands
whose wee arterial concert stands
for a pulse that slowly manifests
well-regulated movements’ rest.


This, then, member king and live
center where vital spirits live,
the breathing bellows’ associate
— lungs, like magnets, wind-attractive —
in ever equal movements bate,
compressing air, or then dilate
the muscular windpipe, soft and clear,
so what it circumscribes, fresh air,
resounds in the hollow ambience
and heats up with the inhaling rush
that activates the expelling push
that robs by bits the native heat
that for a moment may lament
a loss it can’t recuperate;
though the owner may not feel bereft,
if oft repeated, no small theft — ;
these larger exceptions, then, I say,
these few but faithful witnesses
certify that life goes on,
while muted voices don’t decry
the sensory information, mute
— their sole defense is no reply —
and the torpid tongue, though mutedly,
for want of speech gives them the lie.




–Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz excerpt from the poem First Dream published in 1692.  [Creative comic above by Dharma Comics ;-)]

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About pancho

To live in radical joyous shared servanthood to unify the Earth family.
This entry was posted in ARTivism, Awakin Oakland, education, fearlessness, meditation, natural philosophy, nonviolence, poetry, soulforce, WednesdaysOnFridays and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.

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