Gertrudis Gomez de Avellaneda was born in Camaguey, Cuba, a day like today in 1814. At the age of 22 he came to Europe with his family where he first resided in France. Later they came to Spain, where he began to publish under the pseudonym La Peregrina. In Madrid he published his first book, Poetry, and he had a very busy life. More works were The Baroness de Joux, The Devil's Donation o The white aura. In his memory this is a selection of sonnets chosen.
Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda - Sonnets
At the beggining
Sea Pearl! Star of the West!
Beautiful Cuba! Your bright sky
the night covers with its opaque veil,
how pain covers my sad forehead.
I'm leaving!… The diligent mob,
to tear me from the native soil
the sails hoist, and ready to wake up
the breeze comes from your burning area.
Farewell, happy homeland, dear Eden!
Wherever fate in its fury impels me,
your sweet name will flatter my ear!
Goodbye! ... The turgid candle is already creaking ...
the anchor rises ... the ship, shaken,
the waves short and silent flies.
To the stars
Silence reigns: shining in both
Peace lights, pure stars,
Of the happy night beautiful lamps,
You embroider his mournful mantle with gold.
Pleasure sleeps, but my brokenness watches over,
And my complaints break the silence,
Returning the echo, unison with them,
Of night birds the sinister song.
Stars, whose modest and pure light
Of the sea duplicates the blue mirror!
If you are moved by bitterness
Of the intense pain that I complain about,
How to brighten my dark night
You have no woe! not a pale reflection?
In the sun on a December day
It reigns in heaven. Sun! Reign, and inflame
with your soul I fire my tired chest!
without light, without verve, compressed, narrow,
a ray longs for your burning flame.
At your happy influence the grass sprouts;
the ice falls to your radiance undone:
Come out of winter stiff in spite,
king of the sphere, sun: my voice calls you!
From the happy fields of my crib
received the treasure from your rays,
fortune takes me away forever:
under another sky, in another land I cry,
where the fog overwhelms me importunate ...
Come out breaking it, sun, I implore you!
Desire for revenge
Of the powerful spirit hurricane,
rude as the grief that shakes me!
Come, with yours my fury excites!
Come with your breath to inflame my mind!
Let the lightning buzz and burst,
while -which is like a dry leaf or a withered flower-
your strong blow to the oak precipitates.
broken and shattered to the roaring torrent!
Of the soul that invokes and accompanies you,
envying your destructive force,
it throws together the strange confusion.
Come ... to the pain that insane devours her
make your powerful anger happen,
and the dry cry that cowardly cries!
Torture of love
Happy who next to you sighs for you,
who hears the echo of your sonorous voice,
who the compliment of your laughter adores
and the soft aroma of your breath inhales!
Ventura so much, how envious he admires
the cherub that dwells in the empyrean,
the soul troubles, the heart devours,
and the clumsy accent, when expressing it, expires.
Before my eyes the world disappears
and through my veins light circular
I feel the fire of deep love.
Tremulous, I want to resist you in vain.
I flood my cheek with burning tears.
Delirium, joy, I bless you and I die!
My bad
In vain anxious your friendship seeks
guess the evil that torments me;
In vain, my friend, moved, she tries
reveal my voice to your tenderness.
The craving, the madness can be explained
with which love feeds its fires ...
May pain, the most violent anger,
exhale through his lip his bitterness ...
More than saying my deep discomfort,
does not find my voice, my thought, medium,
and when investigating its origin I get confused:
but it is a terrible evil, without remedy,
that makes life hateful, the world hateful,
that dries up the heart ... Anyway, it's boredom!