LORD, I ASK A GARDEN

by: Alfonso Guillén Zelaya (1888-1947)

      ORD, I ask a garden in a quiet spot
      Where there may be a brook with a good flow,
      An humble little house covered with bell-flowers
      And a woman and a son who shall resemble Thee.
       
      I should wish to live many years, free from hates,
      And make my verses, as the rivers
      That moisten the earth, fresh and pure.
      Lord, give me a path with trees and birds.
       
      I wish that you would never take my mother,
      For I should wish to tend her as a child
      And put her to sleep with kisses, when somewhat old,
      She may need the sun.
       
      I wish to sleep well, to have a few books,
      An affectionate dog that will spring upon my knees,
      A flock of goats, all things rustic,
      And to live of the soil tilled by my own hand.
       
      To go into the field and flourish with it;
      To seat myself at evening under the rustic eaves,
      To drink in the fresh mountain perfumed air
      And speak to my little one of humble things.
       
      At night to relate to him some simple tale,
      Teach him to laugh with the laughter of water
      And put him to sleep thinking that he may later on
      Keep that freshness of the moist grass.
       
      And afterwards, the next day, rise with dawn,
      Admiring life, bathe in the brook,
      Milk my goats in the happiness of the garden
      And add a strophe to the poem of the world.

--Translated by William G. Williams

"Lord, I ask a Garden" is reprinted from Hispanic Anthology: Poems Translated from the Spanish by English and North American Poets. Ed. Thomas Walsh. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1920.

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