Poems by Gabriela Mistral

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Tiny Feet

A child's tiny feet,

Blue, blue with cold,

How can they see and not protect you?

Oh, my God!

Tiny wounded feet,

Bruised all over by pebbles,

Abused by snow and soil!

Man, being blind, ignores

110

by Gabriela Mistral

The Stranger (La Extranjera)

She speaks in her way of her savage seas

With unknown algae and unknown sands;

She prays to a formless, weightless God,

Aged, as if dying.

In our garden now so strange,

She has planted cactus and alien grass.

The desert zephyr fills her with its breath

And she has loved with a fierce, white passion

141

by Gabriela Mistral

I am Not Alone

The night, it is deserted

from the mountains to the sea.

But I, the one who rocks you,

I am not alone!

The sky, it is deserted

for the moon falls to the sea.

But I, the one who holds you,

I am not alone !

188

by Gabriela Mistral

Death Sonnet I

From the icy niche where men placed you

I lower your body to the sunny, poor earth.

They didn't know I too must sleep in it

and dream on the same pillow.

I place you in the sunny ground, with a

mother's sweet care for her napping child,

and the earth will be a soft cradle

when it receives your hurt childlike body.

139

by Gabriela Mistral

The Sad Mother

Sleep, sleep, my beloved,

without worry, without fear,

although my soul does not sleep,

although I do not rest.

Sleep, sleep, and in the night

may your whispers be softer

than a leaf of grass,

or the silken fleece of lambs.

146

by Gabriela Mistral

To See Him Again

Never, never again?

Not on nights filled with quivering stars,

or during dawn's maiden brightness

or afternoons of sacrifice?

Or at the edge of a pale path

that encircles the farmlands,

or upon the rim of a trembling fountain,

whitened by a shimmering moon?

139

by Gabriela Mistral

Creed

I believe in my heart that when

The wounded heart sunk within the depth of God sings

It rises from the pond alive

As if new-born.

I believe in my heart that what I wring from myself

To tinge life’s canvas

With red of pallid hue, thus cloaking it

146

by Gabriela Mistral

Those Who Do Not Dance

A crippled child

Said, “How shall I dance?”

Let your heart dance

We said.

Then the invalid said:

“How shall I sing?”

Let your heart sing

We said

232

by Gabriela Mistral

Anniversary

And we go on and on,

Neither sleeping nor awake,

Towards the meeting, unaware

That we are already there.

That the silence is perfect,

And that the flesh is gone.

The call still is not heard

Nor does the Caller reveal his face.

131

by Gabriela Mistral

Pine Forest

Let us go now into the forest.

Trees will pass by your face,

and I will stop and offer you to them,

but they cannot bend down.

The night watches over its creatures,

except for the pine trees that never change:

the old wounded springs that spring

blessed gum, eternal afternoons.

140

by Gabriela Mistral

The Shining Host

In vain you try

To smother my song:

A million children

In chorus sing it

Beneath the sun!

In vain you try

To break my verse

155

by Gabriela Mistral

Decalogue Of The Artist

I. You shall love beauty, which is the shadow of God

over the Universe.

II.There is no godless art. Although you love not the

Creator, you shall bear witness to Him creating His likeness.

III.You shall create beauty not to excite the senses

but to give sustenance to the soul.

IV. You shall never use beauty as a pretext for luxury

and vanity but as a spiritual devotion.

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by Gabriela Mistral