Rima XXII

by Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer
translated by Howard A. Landman


¿Cómo vive esa rosa que has prendido
    junto a tu corazón?
Nunca hasta ahora contemple en la tierra
    sobre el volcán la flor.
How can it live, the rose that you have caught
    next to your heart?
Until now no one on Earth has ever seen
    a flower on a volcano.


Translations by others:


How lives this rose, I pray that thou hast gathered,
    Thus resting on they heart?
Never before on earth did I comtemplate
    On the volcano the flower.

Translated by Owen Innsly
Copyright ©1882 by A. Williams & Company

How is it possible, that roses could
Live in thy heart's impassioned neighborhood?
Ne'er have I seen until the present hour
A dread volcano to produce a flower.

Translated by Jules Renard
Copyright ©1908 by Richard G. Badger



How lives that rose thou hast imprisoned
    There next thy bosom?
Never till now have I seen upon earth
    O'er the volcano the blossom.

Translated by Young Allison
Copyright ©1924 by Young Allison


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Copyright ©2001-2004 Howard A. Landman / howard@polyamory.org
Created 2001 November 22
Last updated 2004 June 12