Journey
I met upon the road
A woman and a man,
And a tree that genuflected
Before the wind;
Farther on, a browsing burro;
And farther still, a heap of stone.
And in three thousand leagues of my spirit
There was no more than these:
A tree, a stone, a burro,
A woman, and a man.
~ Leopoldo Lugones, translated by Muna Lee
El hastio
Encontré por la senda
Una mujer y un hombre,
Y un árbol que al viento
Hacía genuflexiones.
Más lejos un asno que no hacía nada,
Y más lejos una piedra informe...
Y en tres mil leguas de mi espíritu
No había más, entonces,
Que un árbol, una piedra, un asno,
Una mujer y un hombre.
Leopoldo Antonio Lugones Argüello was an Argentine poet, writer, historian, and journalist, and the author of many collections, including Lunario sentimental (Arnoldo Moen y Hermano, 1909) and Filosofícula (Editorial Babel, 1924). He was born on Yeats' birthday & died on mine: June 13, 1874 – February 18, 1938.
Muna Lee (1895-1965) was an American poet, writer, translator, and political activist. She published one book of poetry, Sea-Change (The MacMillan Company, 1923), and served as the translator for the June 1925 issue of Poetry, which exclusively featured Latin American poets.
Thanks to the Academy of American Poets for their Poem-a-day email.