Last Song of the Exile Miguel Teurbe Tolón

 

Poem-a-Day is reader-supported. Your gift today will help the Academy of American Poets continue to publish the work of 260 poets each year, and share this series with 320,000 readers every day. October 13, 2024

Last Song of the Exile Miguel Teurbe Tolón translated from the Spanish by Francisco Javier Vingut                                  I.    Hard my path on earth is closed; Light is dead within my heart. Star of Hope! thou art gone down;    Clay and spirit now must part!                                   II.     Land of flowers! no more thy breezes Sweetly shall my forehead kiss. Sky of Love! Thy beams of light    Shed no more celestial bliss!                                   III.    Foreign shores, o’er seas afar, I sought alone with many a tear Home is lost! no more of love,    No more of friends, no mother dear!                                   IV.    Harp of mine! thy woeful strains, Sadly echoing, soon shall die; Words no more with notes shall twine,——    Winds mid graves my lullaby.                                   V.    Dark and lone my grave will be From Cuba far, unmarked, unknown: Birds will chant my requiem wild,    And dew-drops fall for tears alone.                                   VI.    Fate, O Fate! I fain would read The record in thy book for me;—— Death, draw near! I list thy call;    Ope thy gates, Eternity