Translation of "From the Tower" by Elwin Wirkala

 

https://elwinwirkala.academia.edu/

Biography

Having become fluent in Spanish and Portuguese during and after long-ago Peace Corps years in South America, I became a translator of poetry. This is a private passion and a hobby, but I join Academia.edu from interest in academic 'takes' on some of the poems I translate, the principal one being Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz's great long silva, Primero Sueño (sometimes written as Primer Sueño). or just "El Sueño"

Research Interests

• Emblemática
• Barroco
• Retórica
• Poesía
• Literatura Novohispana

“From the Tower”

by Francisco de Quevedo (1580–1645)
translated into English by Elwin Wirkala

Retired to these deserts and at peace,
and with but few, though learnèd, books beside,
I live conversing now with the deceased,
and listen with my eyes to those who died.

Open, whether or not I miss their points,
they mend or fecundate my everything,
their music’s muted counterpoints when joined
with this life’s dream bespeak awakening.

Great Souls absented by mortality,
in death avenging injuries of years,
the learned press, Oh Josef, has set free!

Hours fled forever disappear,
but they are best accounted for in letters,
read and studied, when they make us better.

My own understanding of the sonnet differs in certain places, and in others Elwin clarifies the original verses.

I'll attempt my own version, blended with his.