Poetry in Translation: Astral Eyes | Ojos Astrales

While at the Universidad de Puerto Rico, I ran across one of the most touching and romantic poems I’ve ever read. It was written by Puerto Rican poet José P.H. Hernández (1892-1922). I’d like to share his poem. I’ll also share my translated & modified version.

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Ojos Astrales

by José P.H. Hernández

Si Dios un día
cegara toda fuente de luz,
el universo se alumbraría
con esos ojos que tienes tú.
Pero si –lleno de agrios enojos
por tal blasfemia– tus lindos ojos
Dios te arrancase,
para que el mundo con la alborada
de tus pupilas no se alumbrase;
aunque quisiera Dios no podría
tender la Noche sobre la Nada. . . .
¡porque aún el mundo se alumbraría
con el recuerdo de tu mirada!

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Here is my translation/modification of Ojos Astrales:

Astral Eyes

by José P.H. Hernández
translation/modification by Luis S. González-Acevedo

If one day
God blinds all fountains of light,
the universe would illuminate
with the beauty in your eyes.
But if –full of sour anger
for such blasphemy– your eyes’ radiance
God nullifies,
so that the world with the daybreak
of your eyes doesn’t shine;
even if God wanted, he could not lay
the night over Nothing or eyes more divine…
Because the world would still shine
with the memory of the beauty in your eyes!