Spanish Love Poems

Miguel Hernandez


 
Miguel Hernandez who came from Orihuela in this region died in prison in 1942.
He wrote "Nanas de cebolla" (onion lullaby) to his wife who was surviving on bread and onions...
 
Nanas de cebolla
 
 
La cebolla es escarcha
cerrada y pobre:
escarcha de tus dias
Y de mis noches.
Hambre y cebolla,
hielo negro y escarcha
grande y redonda.
 
En la cuna del hambre
mi nino estaba.
Con sangre de cebolla
se amamantaba.
Pero tu sangre,
escarchada de azucar,
cebolla y hambre.
 
Una mujer morena
resuelta en luna
se derrama hilo a hilo
sobre la cuna.
Riete, nino,
que te tragas la luna
cuando es preciso.
 
Alondra de mi casa
riete mucho.
Es tu risa en los ojos
la luz del mundo.
Riete tanto
que en el alma, al oirte,
bata el espacio.
 
Tu risa me hace libre,
Me pone als.
Soledades me quita,
Carcel me arranca.
Boca que vuela,
Corazon que en tus labios
Relampaguea.
 
In English
 
The onion is frost
shut in and poor
Frost of your days
and of my nights.
Hunger and onion,
black ice and frost
large and round.
 
My littke boy
was in hunger's cradle
He was nursed
on onion blood
But your blood
is frosted with sugar,
onion and hunger.
 
A dark woman
dissolved in moonlight
pours herself thread by thread
into the cradle.
Laugh, son,
you can swallow the moon
when you want to.
 
Lark of my house,
keep laughing.
The laughter in your eyes
is the light of the world.
Laugh so much
that my soul, hearing you,
will beat in space.
 
Your laughter frees me,
gives me wings
It sweeps away my loneliness
knocks down my cell.
Mouth that flies,
heart that turns
to lightning on your lips.
 
 

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