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Fear of God, Translation of Carlos Bousono’s poem, Miedo de Dios

(The second and fourth lines of these quatrains all end in the same rhyme, a feat it’ll be hard to maintain without appearing to be inflexible with the sound rather than the sense of the poem. This poem is from Carlos Bousono’s first collection : Subida al amor, 1945, which he dedicated to Vicente Aleixandre, marking the commencement of his steadfast admiration and association with the Nobel laureate. T. Wignesan)

And nevertheless, O ! God ! when imbued with feelings of love
I placed my hand in within your bosom,
I felt the love which subdued me
as with one wave from your kingdom.

But I was afraid of the darkness that could
accumulate in the depths of your mystery,
so deep down where even stars could not reach. 
Only the penumbra. Fear gripped me.

Ah ! My God ! With what height of pity you espied me,
yet with so much love you my blindness bless
for having feared the darkness where slumps
the light of all the universe.

Because you are the ultimate hold of knowable protection.
Besides, those who love you will with looks inward train
and see an azure horizon
where a perpetual sunrise will reign.

But here I am on the surface of the earth,
here, across the floor, stretched,
because I was afraid of the horrible night,
perchance locked up in your breast.

And a confused ignorance holds me up :
crossed and brutal, impure and dried.
Closed yet interminably increasing
as with the hardened dead.

© T. Wignesan – Paris,  2013

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