Edgar Allan Poe

Illustration for Edgar Allan Poe's Dreamland (1902, Francis Simpson Coburn)

Pompas del mármol, negra anatomía

que ultrajan los gusanos sepulcrales,

del triunfo de la muerte los glaciales

símbolos congregó. No los temía.

Temía la otra sombra, la amorosa,

las comunes venturas de la gente;

no lo cegó el metal resplandeciente

ni el mármol sepulcral sino la rosa.

Como del otro lado del espejo

se entregó solitario a su complejo

destino de inventor de pesadillas.

Quizá, del otro lado de la muerte,

siga erigiendo solitario y fuerte

espléndidas y atroces maravillas.

— Jorge Luis Borges

☙❧ ☙❧ ☙❧ ☙❧ ☙❧ ☙❧ ☙❧ ☙❧

Translation:

Splendor of marble, black anatomy

horrified by graveyard maggots—

the triumph of death he congealed

with glacial symbols—he feared not,

but feared of other shades, of love,

of other people's common lot.

He was not deceived by gilded metal,

nor the tomb’s marble, but the rose.

As if from the other side of a mirror,

he gave himself, alone, to his convoluted

fate as conjurer of nightmares.

Perhaps, on the other side of death,

he will persist with such force, alone,

to build splendid and terrifying wonders.

(Cambridge, MA, 2022)

Ars et Natura