Si una espina me hiere

Si una espina me hiere, me aparto de la espina,...pero no la aborrezco! Cuando la mezquindadenvidiosa en mi clava los dardos de su inquina,esquívase en silencio mi planta, y se encamina hacia más puroambiente de amor y caridad.

¿Rencores? ¡De qué sirven! ¿Qué logran los rencores?Ni restañan heridas, ni corrigen el mal.Mi rosal tiene apenas tiempo para dar flores,y no prodiga savias en pinchos punzadores:si pasa mi enemigo cerca de mi rosal,

se llevará las rosas de más sutil esencia;y si notare en ellas algún rojo vivaz,será el de aquella sangre que su malevolenciade ayer vertió, al herirme con encono y violencia,y que el rosal devuelve, trocado en flor de paz!

The complete text as transcribed on Spanish Wikisource. 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 of a logic very much Nervo's own: if a thorn wounds him, he steps away from it, but does not hate it. If the ingratitude of a hand drives in a pain, he lets it go, without returning the blow. Faced with harm, neither hatred nor revenge: step aside and go on.

It is the same Nervo as «En paz», the one of a serenity won by renunciation. The central image — the rose that gives its scent no matter who cuts it — sums up a way of being in the world: not to let another's harm decide how you are going to live. A short poem, almost a proverb, from his barest period.

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