Jorge Manrique: Translated by Borges & Longfellow

Here’s the original Spanish version from Jorge Manrique’s Coplas de Don Jorge Manrique por la Muerta de su Padre:

Nuestras vidas son los rios
Que van a dar en la mar
Que es el morir

Here is how Borges translates it:

Our lives are the rivers
That flow into the sea
Which is death

And here is Longfellow’s less-than-literal, but quite interesting take:

Our lives are rivers, gliding free
To that unfathomed, boundless sea,
The silent wave!
Thither all earthly pomp & boast
Roll, to be swallowed up & lost
In one dark wave.

Now go lift something heavy,
Nick Horton

The post Jorge Manrique: Translated by Borges & Longfellow appeared first on THE IRON SAMURAI.