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José Martí
Cuban journalist, editor, poet and leader of the Cuban independence movement
(1853-95)
Jose Marti
| Share this page: Yo soy un hombre sincero De donde crece la palma Y antes de morirme quiero Echar mis versos del alma. I am an an honest man From where the palm tree grows, And I want, before I die, to cast these verses from my soul. -- Opening lines of poem "Yo soy un hombre sincero", originally published in Versos sencillos [Simple verses] (1891). English translation by Esther Allen in Esther Allen in José Martí : Selected Writings (2002). Cultivo una rosa blanca En julio como en enero, Para el amigo sincero Que me da su mano franca. Y para el cruel que me arranca El corazon con que vivo, Cardo ni ortiga cultivo, Cultivo una rosa blanca. I grow a white rose In July just as in January For the sincere friend Who gives me his frank hand. And for the cruel man who pulls out of me the heart with which I live, I grow neither nettles nor thorns: I grow a white rose. -- "Cultivo una rosa blanca", originally published in Versos sencillos [Simple verses] (1891). English translation by Seymour Resnick in Spanish-American Poetry: A Dual-language Anthology (1996). Jose Marti was said to have originally written and sent to a friend who had betrayed him to the police. Sueño con claustros de mármol donde en silencio divino los héroes, de pie, reposan; ¡de noche, a la luz del alma, hablo con ellos: de noche! I dream of cloisters of marble where in divine silence the heroes, standing, rest; at night, in light of the soul, I speak with them: at night! -- Opening lines of poem "Sueño con claustros de mármol" [I dream of cloisters of marble], originally published in Versos sencillos [Simple verses] (1891). Yo quiero salir del mundo por la puerta natural: en un carro de hojas verdes a morir me han de llevar. No me pongan en lo oscuro a morir como un traidor: yo soy bueno, y como bueno moriré de cara al sol. I wish to leave the world By its natural door; In my tomb of green leaves They are to carry me to die. Do not put me in the dark To die like a traitor; I am good, and like a good thing I will die with my face to the sun. -- "A Mori" [To Die] (1894) Life on earth is a hand-to-hand mortal combat... between the law of love and the law of hate. -- Letter (1881), as quoted in The Conscience of Worms and the Cowardice of Lions : Cuban Politics and Culture in an American Context (1993) by Irving Louis Horowit Love is... born with the pleasure of looking at each other, it is fed with the necessity of seeing each other, it is concluded with the impossibility of separation! -- Amor (1881) A knowledge of different literatures is the best way to free one's self from the tyranny of any of them. -- On Oscar Wilde (1882) Terrible times in which priests no longer merit the praise of poets and in which poets have not yet begun to be priests. -- Attributed comment regarding "El Poema de Niágara" by Pérez Bonalde (1883) ¡Robaron los conquistadores una página al Universo! Aquellos eran los pueblos que llamaban la Via Láctea 'el camino de las almas'; para quienes el Universo estaba lleno del Grande Espiritu, en cuyo seno se encerraba toda luz. (The conquistadores stole a page from the Universe! Those were the good people who called the Milky Way 'the souls' path'; for them the Universe was full of the Great Spirit, within which all light was contained.) |
The selection of the above quotes and the writing of the accompanying notes was performed by the author David Paul Wagner.
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