Las campanas

Rosalía de Castro(1837–1885)

En las orillas del Sar, 1884

Yo las amo, yo las oigo,Cual oigo el rumor del viento,El murmurar de la fuenteO el balido del cordero.

Como los pájaros, ellas,Tan pronto asoma en los cielosEl primer rayo del alba,Le saludan con sus ecos.

Y en sus notas, que van prolongándosePor los llanos y los cerros,Hay algo de candoroso,De apacible y de halagüeño.

Si por siempre enmudecieran,¡Qué tristeza en el aire y el cielo!¡Qué silencio en las iglesias!¡Qué extrañeza entre los muertos!

From En las orillas del Sar (1884), via the Spanish Wikisource transcription. That edition prints the title «LAS CAMPANAS» above the stanzas; it was omitted.

Public domainThis poem is in the public domain. You may read it, copy it, recite it and publish it without asking anyone.

About the poem

«Las campanas» belongs to En las orillas del Sar (1884), the last book by Rosalía de Castro and the summit of her work in Castilian. The poet says she loves them and hears them as she hears the wind, the fountain or the bleating of the lamb: a natural, almost domestic presence that greets the dawn «like the birds».

The poem saves its depth for the end. Rosalía imagines them falling silent forever and, in three exclamations, measures what would be lost: «What sadness in the air and the sky! / What silence in the churches! / What strangeness among the dead!». The bells are the thread that binds the living to those who are no longer here.

The verse is kept in Spanish. Translating it in passing would replace the work with a paraphrase of it.