In the deep darkness underneath the ground
That never has been reached by mortal sight,
There silent currents of black water glide
In an unending course amid the night.
Some of them, by the shining steel surprised
That pierces through the rocks to their dark home,
Limpid and boiling to the light gush forth
In a vast plume of white and silvery foam.
The others in deep darkness evermore
Glide silently upon their winding way,
Doomed to a course unending under ground,
Failing to find an outlet to the day.
The noble rivers to the ocean flow
Past field and forest, meadow-bank and lawn,
Reflecting in their silvery, changeful glass
The stars of heaven, the pale tints of dawn.
Veils of fair, fragrant blossoms make them glad,
Nymphs bathe in their clear current with delight;
They fertilize the rich and fruitful vales;
Their waves are singing water, pure and bright.
In the white marble fountain, lo! the stream
Is mischievous and playful, sporting there
Like a young girl that, in a palace hall,
Scatters the pearls that form her necklace fair.
Now like a shining arrow it shoots up,
Now like a fan it opens in its flow;
It splashes glittering diamonds on the leaves,
Or sinks to slumber, singing sweet and low.
The waves that in the mighty ocean swell
Assail the craggy rocks, upsurging high;
Their raging fury shakes the solid earth,
And rises up in tumult to the sky.
Those waves are life and power invincible;
The water is a queen with wrath on fire,
And against heaven like a rival fights,
And wages war with gods and monsters dire.
How different is the current black and still,
Doomed to imprisonment which knows no end,
Living below the earth in gloomy depths,
Down deeper even than the dead descend!
That stream has never known what light may be;
It neither sings nor wails, that sunless wave;
The subterranean stream is dumb, unknown;
It goes upon its way, a mute, blind slave.
Like such a stream, to all the world unknown-
Like such a stream, whose prisoned walls roll
Surrounded by thick darkness-such are you,
O dark and silent currents of my soul!
Who e’er hath known the course your waters take?
No kindly friend goes down where shadows sleep
To look upon you in the dark-and yet
Your captive waves reach deep, oh, very deep!
Should you be given an outlet to the day,
You would gush upward from your sunless home
As high above the cedars and the pines
The water leaps, a column white with foam.
But no-you ne’er will feel the gaze of light;
Still through the night your rayless waves must roll.
Go on, forever gliding in the dark,
O deep and silent currents of my soul!
ONDAS MUERTAS
En la sombra debajo de tierra,
donde nunca lleg
(Manuel Gutierrez Najera)
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Based on Topics: World Poems, Night Poems, Light Poems, Soul Poems, Youth Poems, Heaven Poems, Fairness Poems, Sense & Perception Poems, Kings & Queens Poems, Fire Poems, Home PoemsBased on Keywords: tierra, fertilize, sombra, nunca, ondas, upsurging, dark-and, lleg, no-you, debajo, muertas