lope de vega

Tomorrow

english translation

Tomorrow

original Spanish poem

¿Qué tengo yo que mi amistad procuras?
¿Qué interés se te sigue, Jesús mío, 
que a mi puerta, cubierto de rocío, 
pasas las noches del invierno oscuras?

 O, cuánto fueron mis entrañas duras, 
pues no te abrí, qué extraño desvarío, 
si de mi ingratitud el hielo frío 
secó las llagas de tus plantas puras. 

Cuántas veces el ángel me decía: 
"Alma, asómate ahora a la ventana, 
verás con cuánto amor llamar porfía". 

Y cuántas, hermosura soberana, 
"Mañana le abriremos", respondía, 
para lo mismo responder mañana.

 

Lope de Vega

Lope de Vega was born in Madrid in 1562. A poet, dramatist, novelist, and critic, he was also a soldier, and one of the survivors of the tragically misnamed Invincible Armada. He is generally acknowledged as the father of the Spanish drama, and, since his death in 1635, has been widely considered “the Spanish Shakespeare.” The poem presented here is drawn from his collection of “Sacred Sonnets.”

 

 

Ryan Wilson

Ryan Wilson holds graduate degrees from The Johns Hopkins University and Boston University. Recent work has appeared, or is forthcoming, in a number of magazines, including 32 Poems, First Things, The Hopkins Review, Iron Horse Literary Review, Measure, River Styx, and Sewanee Theological Review, among others. Currently living with his wife in Baltimore, he is a doctoral candidate at The Catholic University of America.

 

 

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