Soneto a Cervantes (With English Translation)

Horas de pesadumbre y de tristeza

paso en mi soledad. Pero Cervantes

es buen amigo. Endulza mis instantes

ásperos, y reposa mi cabeza.

El es la vida y la naturaleza:

Regala un yelmo de oro y de diamantes

A mis sueños errantes.

Es para mí: suspira, ríe y reza.

Cristiano y amoroso caballero

parla como un arroyo cristalino.

!Así le admiro y quiero,

viendo cómo el destino

hace que regocije al mundo entero

la tristeza inmortal de ser divino!

English Translation

A Sonnet on Cervantes

In all my days of troubled loneliness

And fretted grief Cervantes is to me

A faithful friend, and none so true as he,

That brings me precious gifts of quietness.

All nature his, and life. Of his largesse

My dreams, that are knight-errants bold and free,

Have golden casques to crown them gloriously.

He is, for me: sigh, prayer, joyousness.

He speaks as runs a brook, so amorous

And very gentle is this Christian knight,

Even undaunted. And I love him thus,

Beholding how the world, by fate's design,

Reaps, from his deathless sorrow, rich delight,

And laughter from a madness so divine!