Miré los muros de la patria mía

El Parnaso español, 1648

Miré los muros de la patria mía,si un tiempo fuertes, ya desmoronados,de la carrera de la edad cansados,por quien caduca ya su valentía.

Salime al campo, ví que el sol bebíalos arroyos del hielo desatados,y del monte quejosos los ganados,que con sombras hurtó su luz al día.

Entré en mi casa, ví que amancilladade anciana habitación era despojos;mi báculo más corvo y menos fuerte.

Vencida de la edad sentí mi espada,y no hallé cosa en que poner los ojosque no fuese recuerdo de la muerte.

The complete sonnet as transcribed on Spanish Wikisource, keeping the period spelling («ví», «Salime»). No emendation was made.

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

This is one of Quevedo's great sonnets on disillusion and death, from the same world as «Amor constante más allá de la muerte». Everywhere he looks — the walls of his homeland, the fields, the stream, his house, his sword, his staff — everything gives back an image of ruin and reminds him that he is dying.

The poem builds by piling up evidence: the once-strong walls, now crumbled; the sun drinking up the streams; the cattle complaining of the stripped field. And it closes by turning inward, to his own most personal things — the sword, the staff — themselves worn down by age. There is nowhere to rest the eye that is not a memory of death.

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