Julia de Burgos, born Julia Constanza Burgos Garcia (February 17, 1914 – July 6, 1953), was an advocate for Puerto Rican independence and the civil rights of women and Afro-Caribbean writers. One of the most well-known Puerto Rican poets, she wrote about the island’s history, colonialism, oppression as well as her complicated love life. “Bitter Song” is an English translation of  “Canción Amarga” originally written in Spanish (Poemas de Julia de Burgos).

Bitter Song

Nothing troubles my being, but I am sad.
Something slow and dark strikes me,
though just behind this agony,
I have held the stars in my hand.

It must be the caress of the useless,
the unending sadness of being a poet,
of singing and singing, without breaking
the greatest tragedy of existence.

To be and not want to be … that’s the motto,
the battle that exhausts all expectation,
to find, when the soul is almost dead,
that the miserable body still has strength.

Forgive me, oh love, if I do not name you!
Apart from your song I am dry wing.
Death and I sleep together . . .
Only when I sing to you, I awake.

Canción Amarga

Nada turba mi ser, pero estoy triste.
Algo lento de sombra me golpea,
aunque casi detrás de esta agonía,
he tenido en mi mano las estrellas.

Debe ser la caricia de lo inútil,
la tristeza sin fin de ser poeta,
de cantar y cantar, sin que se rompa
la tragedia sin par de la existencia.

Ser y no querer ser… esa es la divisa,
la batalla que agota toda espera,
encontrarse, ya el alma moribunda,
que en el mísero cuerpo aún quedan fuerzas.

¡Perdóname, oh amor, si no te nombro!
Fuera de tu canción soy ala seca.
La muerte y yo dormimos juntamente…
Cantarte a ti, tan sólo, me despierta.Find this information and more about Julia de Borges at Literary Ladies Guide: https://www.literaryladiesguide.com/classic-women-authors-poetry/poems-julia-de-burgos-puerto-rican-poet/