Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer

Volverán las oscuras golondrinas.

The dusky swallows will return again.

Gustavo Adolfo Claudio Domínguez Bastida (17 February 1836 – 22 December 1870), better known as Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, was a Spanish writer, poet and playwright.

Quotes

• Volverán las oscuras golondrinas
  en tu balcón sus nidos a colgar,
  y otra vez con el ala a sus cristales
  jugando llamarán;

  pero aquellas que el vuelo refrenaban
  tu hermosura y mi dicha al contemplar,
  aquellas que aprendieron nuestros nombres,
  ésas... ¡no volverán!

  • Dark swallows will return again with spring
    To hang their nests upon your balcony someday.
    And with a tapping of soft wings against your window,
    Will call you as they play:

    But those that lingered from their homeward flight
    Your beauty and my happiness to learn,
    The ones that came to know our names and faces,
    Those never will return!
    • Las golondrinas ("The Swallows"), as translated by John A. Crow in An Anthology of Spanish Poetry (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1979), p. 130

Variant translations

The dusky swallows in thy balcony To build their nests again will come; again, With friendly wing, beat, clamoring joyously, Against thy window-pane. But they that paused, forgetful to pursue Their flight, thy beauty and my bliss before, To whom our names a sound familiar grew,— They will come back no more. "Nevermore" by Mary J. Serrano, in The Critic, Vol. IV, No. 101 (December 5, 1885), p. 271 Those sombre-hued swallows again will stray To thy balcony, love, there to build them a nest; As they fly to and fro in a vague unrest They will call to thee, call to thee at their play. But those who lingered our names to learn, To drink in the sweetness of all they saw— My bliss and thy beauty without a flaw— They will never return, they will never return. Poems of Gustavo Adolfo Becquer (1891), trans. Mason Carnes (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1891), p. 58 They will return, the dark-winged swallows, To build their nest under your balcony, And once again, flitting against your window, Will call you playfully;— But those who used to stop their rapid flight, love, To gaze upon your beauty and my joy,— The ones who seemed to call us by our names, love, These—will return no more! "Once" by Ellen Watson, in Travelers Record, Vol. XXVIII, No. 7 (October, 1892), p. 4 The dusky swallows will return again, Their love-songs in thy balcony to sing, And once again will beat thy window-pane With restless, fluttering wing. But those same swallows that restrained their flight, That lingered lovingly in years before, To contemplate thy charms and my delight— Those will return no more. Anonymous translation in The Equitable Record, No. 91 (February, 1893), p. 4 The dusky swallows will return again To build their nests upon your balcony, Flutter their pinions at your window-pane And, seeking entrance, greet you playfully. But, those same birds, who used to pause in flight To marvel at your beauty and to yearn For bliss like mine; who knew our names and sight Those birds, alas, will not again return. The "Rimas" of Gustavo A. Becquer, trans. Jules Renard (Boston: The Gorham Press, 1908), p. 55

External links

• Encyclopedic article on Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer on Wikipedia