Nunca des tu corazón
Nunca des todo tu
corazón por amor
las mujeres
apasionadas
apenas lo considerarán si parece
seguro, y ellas
nunca conciben
que se desgaste beso
a beso;
pues todo lo amoroso
es
sólo un suspiro, un
sueño, amable deleite.
Oh, nunca des el
corazón completamente,
por ellas, por lo
que puedan decir los suaves labios,
pues han entregado
sus corazones al juego.
¿Y quién puede jugar
lo bastante bien
si está sordo y mudo
y ciego de amor?
Ése que lo hizo conoce el costo,
porque dio su
corazón entero y lo perdió.
William Butler Yeats, The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats, Palgrave Macmillan Limited, 1991
Versión: Marina Kohon
Never Give the Heart
Never give all the heart, for love
Will hardly seem worth thinking of
To passionate women if it seem
Certain, and they never dream
That it fades out from kiss to kiss;
For everything that's lovely is
But a brief, dreamy, kind delight.
O never give the heart outright,
For they, for all smooth lips can say,
Have given their hearts up to the play.
And who could play it well enough
If deaf and dumb and blind with love?
He that made this knows all the cost,
For he gave all his heart and lost.
Will hardly seem worth thinking of
To passionate women if it seem
Certain, and they never dream
That it fades out from kiss to kiss;
For everything that's lovely is
But a brief, dreamy, kind delight.
O never give the heart outright,
For they, for all smooth lips can say,
Have given their hearts up to the play.
And who could play it well enough
If deaf and dumb and blind with love?
He that made this knows all the cost,
For he gave all his heart and lost.