Poem

EL OTOÑO DE LAS ROSAS

Vives ya en la estación del tiempo rezagado:
lo has llamado el otoño de las rosas.
Apíralas y enciéndete. Y escucha,
cuando el cielo se apague, el silencio del mundo.

THE AUTUMN OF THE ROSES

You already live the season of the postponed time:
you named it the autumn of the roses.
Inhale them and inflame. And listen,
when heaven extinguishes, to the silence of the world.

Francisco Brines
Translation: Germain Droogenbroodt
From: "The sound of the World", Point Editions no. 47

©Francisco Brines

Francisco Brines, born 1932 in Oliva (Valencia), studied law at the University of Deusto, Valencia and Salamanca, consequently Philosophy and Art in Madrid. He has been lector of Spanish in Oxford . He published quite young his first collection of poetry, “Las brasas”, 1960 awarded with the prestigious Adonais prize. In fact he has been honored with a number of prizes, including the Premio Nacional de Poesía. He is considered to belong to the “Generación del 50”. Francisco Brines is certainly one of the most important contemporary Spanish poets. His poetic oeuvre, in which the Mediterranean and nature are omni present, is extensive, sometimes melancholic. Tusquets Editores published in 1997 his – till that moment – complete works (1969-1997).

POINT Editions published a bilingual Spanish-Dutch anthology of Brines
“Het geluid van de wereld – El ruido del mundo”, 1998
Translated by Germain Drooenbroodt,