Segismundo's Lament

[Wim Coleman]

excerpt from a full translation of La vida es sueño (Life Is a Dream)​

by Pedro Calderón de la Barca​

You heavens, I strive to learn
why you must serve me so—
what evil I have done
against you by being born;
And yet, and yet—my birth,
I know, is crime enough
to wholly justify
your judgment and your wrath;
indeed, the greatest crime
of man is to be born.

But for my soul’s sweet solace,
I yearn solely to know
what further crime is mine
to cause such castigation
—apart, you cruel heavens,
from the crime of my birth.
Weren’t others born like me?
And born like me, oh, why,
why have they liberties
that I have never enjoyed?

Scarcely born is the bird
—all clothed in loveliness—
when, lo, this feathered flower,
this wayward, winged bouquet
takes presently to flight
through spacious heavenly halls,
rejecting the warm embrace
of the nest that was its home.
Must I, with larger soul,
have yet less liberty?

Scarcely born is the beast,
with skin as dearly dappled
(thanks to your cunning brush)
as the star-sparkled sky,
when human hunger comes,
audacious and so cruel,
to teach it beastly cruelty—
to be a maze-hunted monster.
Must I, with higher thoughts,
have yet less liberty?

Scarcely born is the fish
(unbreathing, from ooze and roe)
when this scale-studded craft
assays the very waves,
steering hither and yon
and sounding out the vastness
of the icy abyss
as deep as the deep allows.
Must I, with greater will,
have yet less liberty?

Scarcely born is the brook
—winding amid the flowers,
a shining silvery serpent—
when it breaks through the blossoms
with a shout of musical praise,
thanking the kindness of flowers
for lending their majesty
to its flight through open fields.
Must I, with fuller life,
have yet less liberty?

Volcanic rage now swells
in me—the rage of Etna!
I want to tear from my breast
stone pieces of my heart.
What justice, law, or reason
denies to men alone
this precious privilege,
this high and happy favor,
that God grants to a bird,
a beast, a fish, a brook?

 

[Wim Coleman]

Here's a synopsis I wrote of Life Is a Dream for my introduction:

King Basilio of Poland, Prospero-like in his devotion to pure knowledge rather than the responsible exercise of power, gleans from his astrological studies a terrible secret about his newborn son Segismundo. The baby will grow up to be a tyrant who will violently depose his father and oppress his people. Basilio is a familiar figure from world drama: a man who, like Oedipus’s father, Laius, arrogantly presumes to comprehend the will of the heavens, then even more arrogantly presumes to contradict it.
Basilio makes the infant disappear. But unlike Laius, he does not abandon his son to a seemingly certain wilderness death. Instead, he forces him to grow up in a remote mountain prison, where he is guarded and tutored by Basilio’s liegeman Clotaldo. Even while keeping the boy bound in chains and dressed in animal skins, Clotaldo gives him a well-rounded education that includes the essentials of statecraft. Isolated from all of humanity except for Clotaldo, with no idea of his true identity, Segismundo grows up to be a peculiarly learned and unhappy beast of a man.
Years pass, and Basilio has second thoughts. Had he any right to deprive his son of his birthright? Might a man have greater power over his own destiny than Basilio dreamed of in his philosophy? Ever the tinkerer with destiny and human nature, Basilio undertakes an experiment. He orders Astolfo to drug Segismundo, bring him to the royal palace, awaken him to fine clothing and pampering servants, and tell him the entire truth about his life. Segismundo is then to be allowed to rule the kingdom.
The results are predictably disastrous. Drunk with power and enraged to learn the reason for his life-long imprisonment, Segismundo murders a servant, makes coarse advances upon one lady, attempts to rape another, tries to kill his tutor, and defies his
father, who feels tragically vindicated in his original decision to lock away his son. Segismundo is again drugged and taken back to his prison, where he awakens to be told by Clotaldo that his memories of the day at the palace were nothing but a dream.
Word spreads throughout Poland of Segismundo’s existence and imprisonment. A mob of rebels releases the prince, who takes command of their insurrection despite his bafflement as to whether he is awake or dreaming. Victorious in battle, Segismundo overthrows his father and assumes the throne, then promptly proves himself capable of both mercy and ruthlessness. He immediately forgives both Coltaldo and his father for the wretched life they forced him to live, but imprisons the soldier who most aided his rebellion for treason.

 

[Wim Coleman]

Here is a PDF of my translation of the whole play, and also my introduction.

 

[Bob Bradshaw]

What a terrific poem....

 

[Wim Coleman]

What a terrific poem....

Thanks, Bob!

 

[Raymond Huffman]

from a full translation of La vida es sueño (Life Is a Dream)​

by Pedro Calderón de la Barca​

You heavens, I strive to learn
why you must serve me so—
what evil I have done
against you by being born;
And yet, and yet—my birth,
I know, is crime enough
to wholly justify
your judgment and your wrath;
indeed, the greatest crime
of man is to be born.

But for my soul’s sweet solace,
I yearn solely to know
what further crime is mine
to cause such castigation
—apart, you cruel heavens,
from the crime of my birth.
Weren’t others born like me?
And born like me, oh, why,
why have they liberties
that I have never enjoyed?

Scarcely born is the bird
—all clothed in loveliness—
when, lo, this feathered flower,
this wayward, winged bouquet
takes presently to flight
through spacious heavenly halls,
rejecting the warm embrace
of the nest that was its home.
Must I, with larger soul,
have yet less liberty?

Scarcely born is the beast,
with skin as dearly dappled
(thanks to your cunning brush)
as the star-sparkled sky,
when human hunger comes,
audacious and so cruel,
to teach it beastly cruelty—
to be a maze-hunted monster.
Must I, with higher thoughts,
have yet less liberty?

Scarcely born is the fish
(unbreathing, from ooze and roe)
when this scale-studded craft
assays the very waves,
steering hither and yon
and sounding out the vastness
of the icy abyss
as deep as the deep allows.
Must I, with greater will,
have yet less liberty?

Scarcely born is the brook
—winding amid the flowers,
a shining silvery serpent—
when it breaks through the blossoms
with a shout of musical praise,
thanking the kindness of flowers
for lending their majesty
to its flight through open fields.
Must I, with fuller life,
have yet less liberty?

Volcanic rage now swells
in me—the rage of Etna!
I want to tear from my breast
stone pieces of my heart.
What justice, law, or reason
denies to men alone
this precious privilege,
this high and happy favor,
that God grants to a bird,
a beast, a fish, a brook?

Wim, I read your Translator’s Thoughts.. (that you attached), which I found interesting enough to actually finish. It’s extremely well written and highly accessible, and I would encourage members to take a look at it. The play is challenging to me (as a scientist) for many reasons, but I did have early interests in philosophy/metaphysics and took several courses in it. I would need to study your Thoughts more closely to come to any conclusions, but those are discussions for some other place and not particularly relevant to your post here. But who isn't interested in the dream world vs the real world....?

Basically, I am in awe of your scholarly background in literature and particularly in your translations. Any poet (writer) who also translates other works is the embodiment of authentic in my view (as in W.S. Merwin who was not only a Pulitzer Prize winning poet, but also a prolific translator). The act of translating other works has to somehow impact the poems. I just wonder how people find the time to do that.

I did not read your entire translation of the play itself (one homework assignment per night – or week -is enough for me these days), but I am a little confused. You posted this in poetry, but with a subtitle of:
from a full translation of La vida es sueño (Life Is a Dream)
by Pedro Calderón de la Barca

So is this an excerpt of your translation or is it a poem you wrote as an adaptation of your translation of the play, or something else?. Do you see my confusion?

Congratulations on the translation. I hope it was published somewhere.

 

[Wim Coleman]

Wim, I read your Translator’s Thoughts.. (that you attached), which I found interesting enough to actually finish. It’s extremely well written and highly accessible, and I would encourage members to take a look at it. The play is challenging to me (as a scientist) for many reasons, but I did have early interests in philosophy/metaphysics and took several courses in it. I would need to study your Thoughts more closely to come to any conclusions, but those are discussions for some other place and not particularly relevant to your post here. But who isn't interested in the dream world vs the real world....?

Basically, I am in awe of your scholarly background in literature and particularly in your translations. Any poet (writer) who also translates other works is the embodiment of authentic in my view (as in W.S. Merwin who was not only a Pulitzer Prize winning poet, but also a prolific translator). The act of translating other works has to somehow impact the poems. I just wonder how people find the time to do that.

I did not read your entire translation of the play itself (one homework assignment per night – or week -is enough for me these days), but I am a little confused. You posted this in poetry, but with a subtitle of:
from a full translation of La vida es sueño (Life Is a Dream)
by Pedro Calderón de la Barca

So is this an excerpt of your translation or is it a poem you wrote as an adaptation of your translation of the play, or something else?. Do you see my confusion?

Congratulations on the translation. I hope it was published somewhere.

Thanks for your thoughtful response, Raymond. And I'm sorry for the confusion. This is an actual excerpt from my translation, a speech of Segismundo's from early in the play.

It hasn't been published yet, but Pat and I are hoping to publish it soon.

 

[Raymond Huffman]

Great. Thanks. So in a sense it is your work, because it is your translation, but it's not actually your original poem. We don't really a have a forum for that, do we? That's fine, as long as readers understand that. You can see above that Bob assumed this was your poem, for example. I'm actually wondering whether it would be better placed in the Member News and Notices Forum (as a new translation by you), since the Poetry Forum is generally understood as being posts of original poems by members. I don't think that diminishes it in any way.

 

[Wim Coleman]

Great. Thanks. So in a sense it is your work, because it is your translation, but it's not actually your original poem. We don't really a have a forum for that, do we? That's fine, as long as readers understand that. You can see above that Bob assumed this was your poem, for example. I'm actually wondering whether it would be better placed in the Member News and Notices Forum (as a new translation by you), since the Poetry Forum is generally understood as being posts of original poems by members. I don't think that diminishes it in any way.

I've added the word "excerpt" to the subtitle. Should I delete it from here and put it in Member News and Notices?

 

[Raymond Huffman]

I've added the word "excerpt" to the subtitle. Should I delete it from here and put it in Member News and Notices?

No need to delete it. I can move it to that Forum for you if you concur. Note that you can always move your threads yourself to another forum by using the "Thread Tools" drop down menu in the upper right corner of any of your threads.

 

[Raymond Huffman]

I just moved it for you. I think that's where it should be. It's an important post and I hope members see it and read it.

 

[Wim Coleman]

I just moved it for you. I think that's where it should be. It's an important post and I hope members see it and read it.

Thanks.

 

[Wim Coleman]

Thanks.

Raymond, feel free to pass along both PDFs to anyone you think might find them interesting.

 

[Wim Coleman]

Thanks for the likes, @heidi selig.