Rima LII (Olas gigantes)

Rimas, 1871

Olas gigantes que os rompéis bramandoEn las playas desiertas y remotas,Envuelto entre la sábana de espumas,Llevadme con vosotras!

Ráfagas de huracán, que arrebatáisDel alto bosque las marchitas hojas,Arrastrado en el ciego torbellino,Llevadme con vosotras!

Nubes de tempestad, que rompe el rayoY en fuego ornáis las desprendidas orlas,Arrebatado entre la niebla oscura,Llevadme con vosotras!

Llevadme, por piedad, adonde el vértigoCon la razón me arranque la memoria...¡Por piedad!... ¡Tengo miedo de quedarmeCon mi dolor á solas!

The complete Rima LII from the Obras (volume III, 1885), taken from the Spanish Wikisource transcription. 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

Three stanzas, three pleas to unleashed nature: to the giant waves that break roaring, to the hurricane that snatches the dry leaves, to the storm clouds that wrap the lightning. Of all three he asks the same thing: «carry me with you!».

And in the last line, after so much fury, the reason appears, said almost under his breath: he wants the tempest to carry him off «out of pity», because he is afraid of being left «alone with my grief». It is Bécquer's Romanticism at its purest: to beg the immense to tear him out of himself.

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