Fría y tormentosa la noche que zarpé de Montevideo.
Al doblar el Cerro,
tiré desde la cubierta más alta
una moneda que brilló y se anegó en las aguas barrosas,
una cosa de luz que arrebataron el tiempo y la tiniebla.
Tuve la sensación de haber cometido un acto irrevocable,
de agregar a la historia del planeta
dos series incesantes, paralelas, quizá infinitas:
mi destino, hecho de zozobra, de amor y de vanas vicisitudes
-y el de aquel disco de metal
que las aguas darían al blando abismo
o a los remotos mares que aún roen
despojos del sajón y del viking.
A cada instante de mi sueño o de mi vigilia
corresponde otro de la ciega moneda.
A veces he sentido remordimiento
y otras envidia,
de ti que estás, como nosotros, en el tiempo y su laberinto
y que no lo sabes.
-Jorge Luis Borges
Hehe… and, just for laughs, here is google’s translation:
To a currency…
Fry and stormy the night that I weighed anchor of Montevideo.
When doubling the hill,
I threw from the high cover but
a currency that shone and flooded in muddy waters,
a light thing that snatched the time and tiniebla.
I had the sensation of to have committed an irrevocable act,
to add to the history of the planet
two incessant, parallel, perhaps infinite series:
my destiny, I throw of sinking, love and vain vicissitudes,
and the one of that metal disc
that the waters darian to the soft abyss
or to the remote seas that still nibble
despoliation of sajón and the Phoenician.
Constantly of my dream or my watch
another one of the blind currency corresponds.
Sometimes I have felt remorse
and others envy,
of you who these, like us, in the time and its labyrinth
and that you do not know it…
Now, let’s try Spanish->English->Spanish->English (just for kicks):
Fry and stormy the night that I weighed the anchor of Montevideo.
When doubling the hill,
I sent of the high cover
but of a modernity that shone and flooded in waters of the fangosas,
a slight thing that snatched the time and tiniebla.
It had the sensation of for to have committed an irrevocable act,
to add to the history of incessant, parallel planet
two, of the perhaps infinite series:
my the useless destiny, shipment to the sink, love and vicissitudes,
and the one that esta’ of that disc of the metal
that the waters darian to the smooth abyss
or to the remote seas that still they
despoliation mordiscan of saj