A Taste of Mistral

The Poet, not the pisco. I promised I'd put up some more poetry other than Neruda, so here's Gabriela Mistral, another Nobel Laureate!

From her children's poetry (They taught this one at the NGO/preschool where I had my internship)

Dame la Mano

Dame la mano y danzaremos;
dame la mano y me amarás.
Como una sola flor seremos,
como una flor, y nada más...
El mismo verso cantaremos,
al mismo paso bailarás.
Como una espiga ondularemos,
como una espiga, y nada más.
Te llama Rosa y yo Esperanza:
pero tu nombre olvidarás,
porque seremos una danza
en la colina, y nada más...
Give Me Your Hand

Give me your hand and give me your love,
give me your hand and dance with me.
A single flower, and nothing more,
a single flower is all we'll be.
Keeping time in the dance together,
you'll be singing the song with me.
Grass in the wind, and nothing more,
grass in the wind is all we'll be.
I'm called Hope and you're called Rose:
but losing our names we'll both go free,
a dance on the hills, and nothing more,
a dance on the hills is all we'll be.


Many of her poems are not this positive, and use death as a major theme, but I had a hard time finding an english translation for many of them.