Cantato del Viajero - The Traveller's Song

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The following has been reproduced from "The Native Sky: Studies in the Life and Writings of Jose Rizal." This book was published by the Office of Research and Publications, Loyola Schools, ateneo de Manila University. Copywright 2004, Miguel A. Bernard, S.J. ISBN 971-0358-00-6

The English translation of the poem is by Miguel A. Bernard, S.J

In the Philippines, this excellent, interesting and informative book can be purchased from:

Solidaridad Book Shop

(Francisco Sionil Jose, Proprietor)

531 Padre Faura St.

Ermita

City of Manila

Tel: 02 525 5038 or: 02 523 0870

(Having been a seaman for the last 33 years, I find this poem particulary moving. smb:)

Hoja seca que vuel indecisa

y arrebata violente turbion:

asi vive en la tierra el viajero,

sin norte, sin alma, sin patria ni amor.

"A dry leaf floats undecided in the air, and a violent wind blows it away. Thus does a traveller live on earth: with no direction, no soul, no homeland and no loved one."

Busca animoso doquiera la dicha,

y la dicha se aleja fugaz;

vana sombra que burla su anhelo;

por ella viajero se lanza a lar mar.

"He looks everywhere for happiness, but happiness eludes him like a shadow that mocks his desire. Yet it is to seek it that he sets out on the sea."

Impedido por mano invisible

vagara de confin a confin;

los recuerdos le haran compania

de seres queridos de un dia feliz

"He goes from place to place, but an invisible hand blocks him. All he has to keep him company are his memories of loved ones and of a happy day."

Una tumba quiza en el desierto

hallara, dulce asilo de paz;

de su patria y del mundo olvidado

descansara tranquilo, tras tanto penar

"At last he will find peace - in a tomb in a desert. Forgotten by his country, by the world, he will rest peacefully, all his sufferings left behind."

Y le envidian al triste viajero

cuando cruza la tierra veloz!

Ay, no saben que dentro del alma

existe un vacio do falta el amor.

"And yet, people envy the traveller! They envy his ability to go easily from place to place. Ah! they don't know that in his soul is a vacuum, where love is absent."

Volvera el peregrino a su patria

y a sus lares tal vez volvera:

y hallara por doquier nieve y ruina,

amores perdidos, sepulcros no mas.

"Eventually the traveller will go back to his homeland, revisiting the home of his youth. What will he find there? Snow and ruin, lost loves and tombs."

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I am a traveller

Always searching for something

Never finding it

On the road till I die, in a far off place

Where the vultures will be happy to eat my flesh!

But, at least, I am free...

Vic Rolfe, September 14, 2005

(Inspired by Jose Rizal's "Cantato del Viajero" - and my life in general!)

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"To travel is to live!"

"Oh travel, travel! that is the happiest fate! That is why we all travel... even the dead in their silent graves fly with the earth around the sun. Yes, to travel ia an obsession of the whole universe..."

Hans Christian Andersen

Quoted by Michael Booth in Just As Well I'm Leaving