“And the Word Was Made Flesh And Dwelt Among Us” : Six new translations from El Verbo Aquí, the line-by-line poetic exegesis of John’s Prologue by Luis Cruz-Villalobos

As has become our habit, we present here six newly translated poems by Prof. Cruz-Villalobos from his poetic exegesis of the Prologue of John’s Gospel, entitled, El Verbo Aquí. These and other selections from his poetic corpus that we have been gradually translating will be featured in an upcoming English compilation of his poetry to be published shortly.

Enjoy!

And thank you, Luis!

14 And the Word Was Made Flesh

Flesh pure and fragile

Flesh weak

but holy

The word was made flesh

that the flesh

might reach unto the Word

And by the triune love

God the Son was made man

That men

Might become sons of God

Mystery

and hope greater

Since the Word

Made Himself flesh

Became cannon fodder 1

Of slaves

Of prisoners

Of the condemned

Of the miserable

Of beggars

Of the sick

Of sinners

For me

For you

For the other

1 Carne de cañón: Literally “flesh of the cannon,” which wordplay is clear in context and comes to mean “cannon fodder” or that which is deemed to be expendable. For the complete Spanish text, see below.

Y AQUEL VERBO FUE HECHO CARNE

Carne pura y frágil

Carne débil

pero santa

El Verbo fue hecho carne

Para que la carne

alcanzara al Verbo

Y por el al trino amor

Dios Hijo fue hecho hombre

Para que los hombres

Llegaran a ser hijos de Dios

Misterio

y esperanza mayor

Pues el Verbo

Se hizo carne

Carne de cañón

De esclavos

De presos

De condenados

De miserables

De pordioseros

De enfermos

De pecadores

Por mí

Por ti

Por tanto otros

AND DWELT AMONG US

And not only came

But stayed

As a little nomad

Who sets up his tent

And takes into it

Those with no home

So was the Word

Humbly

He set up his hut

In the middle of the village

A simple tent

Halfway through the desert

A shelter full

For man

A home that is needed

above all

There humbly ready

As a house open

for humanity

complete

Y HABITÓ ENTRE NOSOTROS

Y no solo vino

Se quedó

Como pequeño nómada

Que instala su tienda

Y acoge en ella

a los sin casa

Así fue el Verbo

Humildemente

instaló su choza

En medio del poblado

Tienda sencilla

En la mitad

del desierto

Hogar pleno

para el hombre

Hogar requerido

por sobre todo lugar

Allí humildemente dispuesto

Como la casa abierta

para la humanidad

completa

AND WE BEHELD HIS GLORY, THE GLORY AS OF THE ONLY-BEGOTTEN SON OF THE FATHER

His glory

In fragility enclosed

His weight made evident

In his release

In his renunciation

In his emptying

Exactly here 1

Unable to hide his grandeur

His sublime beauty

Unable to veil 2

The marvel of his Life

Of his Light and Truth

Evident there

To the eyes of the poor

To the eyes of those weeping

From depth of yearning

To those who were hoping

For the bread and water

So for that glory

Bearing the imperial seal

Of the Father

Which He only gave and will give to his Word

To His beloved Word made flesh

1 “Exactly there” (Incluso allí) forms a poetic inclusio with the second line “In fragility enclosed” (En la fragilidad incluso) which, we bring to your attention as it is obscured by the translation.

2 No podía velar: Velar can mean “veil” or “hide” or “conceal”; yet also holds the meaning of “keep a vigil over” or “have a wake for” someone who has died,” thus adding depths to the paradox of the Incarnation being expounded.

Y VIMOS SU GLORIA, GLORIA COMO DEL UNIGÉNITO DEL PADRE

Su gloria

En la fragilidad incluso

Su peso quedó evidente

En su desprendimiento

En su renuncia

En su vaciedad

Incluso allí

No podía ocultar su grandeza

Su belleza sublime

No podía velar

La maravilla de su Vida

De su Luz y Verdad

Evidente quedó

A los ojos de los pobres

A los ojos de los que lloraban de anhelo

A los que esperaban

el pan y el agua

Pues esa gloria

Llevaba el sello imperial

Del Padre

Que sólo dio y dará a su

Verbo A su amado Verbo hecho carne

FULL OF GRACE AND TRUTH

And how not to sum up

in this way his charm

Full of grace

Of gifts

unmerited by anyone

Gifts so splendid

That they were He Himself

sharing Himself

to all those in need

From the manger

to the empty tomb

And full of truth

As Truth that

Nothing could hide

It was full transparency

As a window

that cannot hold back the sun

and through it passes its light

Which enters into our homes

LLENO DE GRACIA Y DE VERDAD

Y cómo no resumir

así su encanto

Lleno de gracia

De dones

no merecidos por ninguno

Dones espléndidos

Que eran Él mismo

compartiéndose

a todos los necesitados

Y lleno de verdad

Pues como Verdad que era

Nada podía ocultar

Era transparencia plena

Como ventana

que nada detiene del sol

y que por ella pasa su luz

para entrar a las casas

16 AND OF HIS FULLNESS HAVE WE ALL RECEIVED

A little sip was enough

A little touch

of the edge of his cloak

A word no more

And is and will be sufficient

For above its fullness

we cannot reach to the height of exaltation 1

Nor form an ode sufficient

That would even encompass it

For it is more

than that which our understanding

can manage to reach

Higher and deeper

Wider and broader 2

His fullness

Than all our measures

1. Exaltar expresses the idea of exaltation (its English cognate) and “rising up above”; yet, at the same time, it can mean “to extol” another in praise and “with excitement”, which fluidly connects to the following line about how our words utterly fail to form an ode adequate to this given Reality.

One may think here of the lines of T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, East Coker V:

…And so each venture
Is a new beginning, a raid on the inarticulate,
With shabby equipment always deteriorating
In the general mess of imprecision of feeling,
Undisciplined squads of emotion. And what there is to conquer
By strength and submission, has already been discovered
Once or twice, or several times, by men whom one cannot hope
To emulate - but there is no competition -
There is only the fight to recover what has been lost
And found and lost again and again: and now, under conditions
That seem unpropitious. But perhaps neither gain nor loss.
For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.

2. These lines evoke the words of Paul,

that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love,

may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—

to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God (Eph 3:17-19).

16 PORQUE DE SU PLENITUD TOMAMOS TODOS

Con un pequeño sorbo bastó

Un pequeño toque

del borde de su manto

Una palabra no más

Y es y será suficiente

Pues sobre su plenitud

no alcanzamos a exaltar

Ni a conformar oda suficiente

Que siquiera la circunde

Pues es más

de lo que nuestro entendimiento

logra alcanzar

Más alta y honda

Más ancha y larga

Su plenitud

que todas nuestras medidas

AND GRACE FOR GRACE

Gift after gift

More and more goodness

And how could it not be

If it is proper for love to give itself

And of love supreme

It is proper to give itself

supremely and untiringly

And in the same way

Beyond pain

And beyond even life 1

1. “And beyond even life” in the Spanish text is Y más allá de la vida incluso. The use of incluso (which we here translated “even”) draws our attention back to the poetic inclusio in

Y GRACIA SOBRE GRACIA

Don tras don

Más y más bondad

Y cómo no

Si del amor es propio el darse

Y del amor supremo

Es propio darse

suprema e incansablemente

Y así mismo

Más allá del dolor

Y más allá de la vida incluso

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The “Narrow and Hard, Suffering (thlibó) Pathway” of Francis Thompson’s poem, “The Hound of Heaven”: From the '“harvest fields” of addiction and destitution

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Poetic Identity and the pathway beyond the “linear, causal diachronic” into the “circular, synergetic, synchronic” (Luis Cruz-Villalobos)