Spring 2015
Se hizo velocidad, luz repentina.
He became fast, a flash of light.
Tomó las lentitudes del otoño.
Trabajó en las guaridas invisibles.
Durmió en las sábanas del ventisquero.
Igualó la conducta de las flechas.
Bebió la sangre agreste en los caminos.
Arrebató el tesoro de las olas.
Se hizo amenaza como un dios sombrío.
Comió en cada cocina de su pueblo.
Aprendió el alfabeto del relámpago.
Olfateó las cenizas esparcidas.
Envolvió el corazón con pieles negras.
Descifró el espiral hilo del humo.
Se construyó de fibras taciturnas.
Se aceitó como el alma de la oliva.
Se hizo cristal de transparencia dura.
Estudió para viento huracanado.
Se combatió hasta apagar la sangre.
Took the autumn’s calm.
Hid in invisible haunts.
Slept under sheets of snowdrift.
Matched the flight of arrows.
Drank rough blood in the roads.
Snatched the wave’s treasure.
Became a menace like a brooding god.
Ate at every campfire of his people.
Learned the alphabet of lightning.
Sniffed out scattered remains.
Wrapped his heart in black skins.
Deciphered the spiral thread of smoke.
Wove himself from quiet fibres.
Oiled himself like the soul of the olive.
Became hard, transparent crystal.
Studied to be the wind of hurricane.
Battled until he commanded his blood.
Sólo entonces fue digno de su pueblo.
Only then was he worthy of his people.
[Tr. Stephen Zelnick]
The Canto General section “Los Conquistadores” treats such luminaries as Cortez, Balboa,
and Magellan, and the opening poem “Vienen por las Islas (1493)" imagines the moment Columbus
arrives in the Bahamas and initiates the nightmare of conquest. It is a brief and bitter poem,
encapsulating in 26 swift and stinging lines the vast tragedy of murder and theft of the New World.
The scenes are well known and Neruda works in short-hand. The smiling Tainos, graceful as deer,
welcome the newcomers with festive offerings and go to their deaths uncomprehending. The
conquerors erect a jagged cross from the bones of their victims, a ghastly collision of murder and
sanct