Mariposas blancas

Two White Butterflies. Vincent van Gogh. 1889.

 

Mariposas blancas

from Platero y yo

Juan Ramón Jiménez, 1914

 

La noche cae, brumosa ya y morado. Vagas claridades malvas y verdes perduran tras la torre de la iglesia. El camino sube, lleno de sombras, de cansancio y de anhelo. De pronto, un hombre oscuro, con una gorra ye un pincho, roja un instante la cara fea por la luz del cigarro, baja a nosotros de una casucha miserable, perdida entre sacas de carbón. Platero se amedrenta.

—¿Ba argo?

—Vea usted… Mariposas blancas…

El hombre quiere clavar su pincho de hierro en el seroncillo, y no lo evito. Abro la alforja y él veo nada. Y el alimento ideal pasa, libre y cándido, sin pagar su tributo a los Consumos.

 

This Spanish poem is featured on Wrestle with the Angel in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, September 15-October 15.

“Mariposas blancas” (“White Butterflies”) is the second chapter in the poetic book Platero y Yo. In it, the poet and his donkey Platero are stopped by a customs officer wanting to know what they carry in their bags. “Look for yourself,” the poet replies. “White butterflies.” The officer sees nothing “and so the food for the soul passes, freed and candid, without paying tribute.”

Jiménez, Spanish poet and winner of the 1956 Nobel Prize in Literature, was an advocate of “pure poetry.” He famously said, “If they give you ruled paper, write the other way.”