Alta Mar By Teresa Wilms Montt -- Translation And Inspiration

Alta Mar

De tanta angustia que me roe, guardo un silencio que se unifica a la entraña del océano.

En la noche cuando los hombres duermen, mis ojos haciendo tríptico con el farol del palo mayor, velan con el fervor de un lampadario ante la inmensidad del universo.

El austro sopla trayendo a los muertos cuyas sombras húmedas de sal acarician mi cabellera desordenada.

Agonizando vivo y el mar está a mis pies y el firmamento coronando mis sienes.

-- Written by Teresa Wilms Montt, 10 June 1919, aboard el Daryo

***

High Sea

So much anguish that corrodes me, I keep a silence that unifies to the bowels of the ocean.

At night when the men sleep, my eyes making triptych with the lantern of the main mast fervently keep vigil like a lampadarium before the immensity of the universe.

The Austro blows bringing the dead whose humid shadows of salt caress my untidy hair.

Agonizing I live and the sea is at my feet and the firmament crowning my temples.

-- Translated by Wilson Le-Cerf

***

In the Garden of Gethsemane

(after TWM)

-- “ Ojos grande, sabes, y de mirada bonita con triste adentro”

Devouring anguish gnaws at my organs
I guard those silences whose entrails lead to the deep dark ocean

-- “Pienso para mis adentros”

At night beyond where men sleep
The main mast illumines the distance
My blue eyes captivated by the small lantern
Nervous sway under the fathomless weight of the universe

The southerly comes
Breath of the dead
They sound a moving shadow
I feel their humid caresses
Their salty fingers ruffle my hair

Living in the garden of Gethsemane

The sea at my feet

The daily rise and fall
And my head is crowned in heaven

-- Improvisation by FT-Lynch

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