Mary Rae studied Spanish Language and Literature at Boston University. Her translation, St. John of the Cross: Selected Poems, was published in 1991 by Longwood Academic. Although it is currently out of print, Mary is working on a revised edition, which will include her own illustrations.

 

 GARCILASO DE LA VEGA
                  
Sonnet X

        ¡Oh dulces prendas, por mi mal halladas,
dulces y alegres cuando Dios queria!
Juntas estais en la memoria mia,
y con ella en mi muerte conjuradas.
    ¿Quien me dijera, cuando en las pasadas
horas en tanto bien por vos me via,
que me habiades de ser en algun dia
con tan grave dolor representadas?
   Pues en un hora junto me llevastes
todo el bien que por terminos me distes,
llevadme junto el mal que me dejastes;
   si no, sospechare que me pusistes
en tantos bienes porque deseastes
verme morir entre memorias tristes.

   

 GARCILASO DE LA VEGA
 
Sonnet X

   Oh, sweet tokens, sadly found by me,
sweet and happy when God willed it so!
Together with my memory you go,
making my death your conspiracy.
   Whoever could have told me, having seen
the joy you brought to me not long ago,
that, in time, I would come to know
you as the source of my great suffering?
   As in one hour you have laid to waste
all the good you gave me by degrees,
so take away the ill you left, with haste;
    if not, I will suspect that it would please
you to let me know your bounty’s taste
then watch me die among sad memories.

                                               translated by Mary Rae

GARCILASO DE LA VEGA

Soneto XI

   Hermosas ninfas que, en el rio metidas,
contentas habitais en las moradas
de relucientes piedras fabricadas
y en colunas de vidrio sostenidas:
   Agora esteis labrando embebecidas,
o tejiendo las telas delicadas;
agora unas con otras apartadas,
contandoos los amores y las vidas;
   dejad un rato la labor, alzando
vuestras rubias cabezas a mirarme,
y no os detendreis muchos, segun ando;
   que o no podreis de lastima escucharme,
o convertido en agua aqui llorando,
podreis alla de espacio consolarme.

       

 GARCILASO DE LA VEGA

 Sonnet XI

   Beautiful nymphs who through the river pass,
living in contentment on your own
in your mansions built of shimmering stone
and upheld by columns made of glass:
   now, one embroiders lovely trifles as
another weaves a cloth of delicate tone;
and now, a few of you go off alone,
each telling of the life and loves she has;
   for a while, put your work aside
and lift your golden heads to look at me,
and I won’t keep you long, I confide;
   you’ll be too sad to listen, or I’ll be
changed to water crying at your side,
and then there will be time for sympathy.

translated by Mary Rae

    

GARCILASO DE LA VEGA
     
Soneto XXIII

   En tanto que de rosa y azucena
se muestra la color en vuestro gesto,
y en vuestro mirar ardiente, honesto,
enciende al corazon y lo refrena;
   y en tanto que el cabello, que en la vena
del oro se escogio, con vuelo presto,
por el hermoso cuello blanco, enhiesto,
el viento mueve, esparce y desordena:
   coged de vuestra alegre primavera
el dulce fruto, antes que el tiempo airado
cubra de nieve la hermosa cumbre.
   Marchitara la rosa el viento helado,
todo lo mudara la edad ligera
por no hacer mudanza en su costumbre.

     

GARCILASO DE LA VEGA

  Sonnet XXIII

   As long as the colors of the rose
and the lily play across your face,
and as long as your ardent gaze
ignites the heart that it reins and slows;
   as long as the breeze lightly blows
through your hair, where gold seams interlace,
and moves, flutters and tangles it with grace
as round your pretty, long white neck it goes;
   gather the sweet fruit of happy Spring,
before wrathful age has overlaid
all your beauty’s pinnacles with snow.
   Icy wind will cause the rose to fade,
and fleeting time will transform everything
just to maintain its accustomed flow.