“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