Arts & Sciences
Poets! Towers of God
Translated by Thomas Walsh and Salomon de la Selva (1916) · From Eleven Poems of Rubén Darío (1916)
POETS! Towers of God
Made to resist the fury of the storms
Like cliffs beside the ocean
Or clouded, savage peaks!
Masters of lightning!
Breakwaters of eternity!
Hope, magic-voiced, foretells the day
When on the rock of harmony
The Siren traitorous shall die and pass away.
And there shall only be
The full, frank-billowed music of the sea.
Be hopeful still,
Though bestial elements yet turn
From Song with rancorous ill-will
And blinded races one another spurn!
Perversity debased
Among the high her rebel cry has raised.
The cannibal still lusts after the raw,
Knife-toothed and gory-faced.
Towers, your laughing banners now unfold.
Against all hatreds and all envious lies
Upraise the protest of the breeze, half-told,
And the proud quietness of sea and skies. . . .
Codex Note
Spanish title: ¡Torres de Dios! ¡Poetas!
Cite this poem
MLA
Darío, Rubén. “Poets! Towers of God.” Translated by Thomas Walsh and Salomon de la Selva. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/dario/5/.
Chicago
Darío, Rubén. “Poets! Towers of God.” Translated by Thomas Walsh and Salomon de la Selva. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/dario/5/.
Read this poem with the Codex →