Tuesday, March 27, 2012

The laughing heart

Hi everyone! I'm a new blogger and my name is Paloma. I am going to contribute to this blog with tonnes of poems and songs which I challenge you all to translate!
In order to start, today we are going to read a poem of one of the most famous american writers of the last century, the great Charles Bukowski. First you will read the poem in Spanish, and then you will have to fill in the gaps with the English words that are missing in the original poem. It's very simple, you see which is the word missing in Spanish and then you translate it. Ready?

 El corazón que ríe

    Tu vida es tu vida
    no dejes que sea golpeada contra la húmeda sumisión
    mantente alerta
    hay salidas

    hay una luz en algún lugar
    puede que no sea mucha luz pero
    vence a la oscuridad

    mantente alerta
    los dioses te ofrecerán oportunidad es
    conócelas
    tómalas

    no puedes vencer a la muerte pero
    puedes vencer a la muerte en la vida, a veces
    y mientras más a menudo aprendas a hacerlo
    más luz habrá

    tu vida es tu vida
    conócela mientras la tengas

    tú eres maravilloso
    los dioses esperan para deleitarse
    en ti.

The Laughing Heart

    your _____ is your ____
    don’t let it be clubbed into dank ________.
    be on the watch.
    there are _____  ______.

    there is a _____ somewhere.
    it may not be much ____ but
    it beats the ______.

    be on ______  ______.
    the gods will offer you_____.
    know them.
   _____ them.

    you can’t beat _______ but
    you can beat death in life, ________.
    and the more often you ______ to do it,
    the ____ _____ there will be.

    your life is your life.
    know it while you ______ _____.

    you are ________
    the _______ wait to delight
    in ______.

To help you, you can listen to this poem in a commercial of the famous brand Levi's, where we can hear a voice reciting it as Bukowski would do it.
Levi's Go Forth Commercial