Arts & Sciences

Bagpipes of Spain

by Rubén Darío 1867–1916

Translated by Thomas Walsh and Salomon de la Selva (1916) · From Eleven Poems of Rubén Darío (1916)

Arts & Sciences

BAGPIPES of Spain, ye that can sing
That which is sweetest to us in the Spring!
You first sing of gladness and then sing of pain
As deep and as bitter as the billowed main.

Sing. 'Tis the season! As glad as the rain
My verses shall trip ye a jig or a fling.
Ecclesiastes said it again and again,
All things have their season, O bagpipes of Spain!—

A season to plant, a season to reap;
A season to sew, a season to tear;
A season to laugh, a season to weep;
Seasons for to hope and for to despair;
A season to love, a season to mate;
A season of birth, a season of Fate. . . .

✦ ✦ ✦

Spanish title: Gaita galaica.

MLA

Darío, Rubén. “Bagpipes of Spain.” Translated by Thomas Walsh and Salomon de la Selva. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/dario/9/.

Chicago

Darío, Rubén. “Bagpipes of Spain.” Translated by Thomas Walsh and Salomon de la Selva. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/dario/9/.

Read this poem with the Codex →

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