Francisco de Quevedo – searchable text

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Sonnet ‘The final shades may come’

Cerrar podrá mis ojos la postrera
sombra que me llevare el blanco día,
y podrá desatar esta alma mía
hora a su afán lisonjera;

mas no, de esotra parte, en la ribera,
dejará la memoria, en donde ardía:
nadar sabe mi llama el agua fría,
y perder respeto a ley severa.

Alma a quien todo un dios prisión ha sido,
venas que humor a tanto fuego han dado,
medulas que han gloriosamente ardido,

su cuerpo dejará, no su cuidado;
serán ceniza, mas tendrá sentido;
polvo serán, mas polvo enamorado.

The final shades may come to shut my eyes
and steal the white of day away from me,
and an indulgent hour that gratifies
my soul’s anguished desire may set it free.

My soul shall not, though, on that further shore,
abandon all its burning memories:
my flame can disrespect a rigid law
and through cold water swim with greatest ease.

A soul imprisoned by a god, no less,
veins that have fed so great a conflagration,
and marrow that has burnt in wondrousness,

will quit its body, not its adoration,
will be cold ash, but ash that feels, and will
be driest dust, but dust that loves her still.

Source

Quevedo, F. de (1972), Francisco Quevedo. Poemas escogidos, ed. José Manuel Blecua (Madrid: Castalia). English translation by © John Rutherford, published in Rutherford, J. (2016), The Spanish Golden Age Sonnet (Cardiff, University of Wales Press), 191.