UNAMUNO, Miguel de

En horas de insomnio

Me voy de aquí, no quiero más oírme;

de mi voz toda voz suéname a eco,

ya falta así de confesor, si peco

se me escapa el poder arrepentirme.

No hallo fuera de mí en que me afirme

nada de humano y me resulto hueco;

si esta cárcel por otra al fin no trueco

en mi vacío acabaré de hundirme.

Oh triste soledad, la del engaño

de creerse en humana compañía

moviéndose entre espejos, ermitaño.

He ido muriendo hasta llegar al día

en que espejo de espejos, soy me extraño

a mí mismo y descubro no vivía.

Throw Yourself Like Seed

Shake off this sadness, and recover your spirit;

sluggish you will never see the wheel of fate

that brushes your heel as it turns going by,

the man who wants to live is the man in whom life is abundant.

Now you are only giving food to that final pain

which is slowly winding you in the nets of death,

but to live is to work, and the only thing which lasts

is the work; start then, turn to the work.

Throw yourself like seed as you walk, and into your own field,

don’t turn your face for that would be to turn it to death,

and do not let the past weigh down your motion.

Leave what’s alive in the furrow, what’s dead in yourself,

for life does not move in the same way as a group of clouds;

from your work you will be able one day to gather yourself.