There is twilight grey and gloomy 
    Where the sea its velvet trails;
Out across the heavens roomy 
    Draw the veils. 

Bitter and sonorous rises 
    The complaint from out the deeps, 
And the wave the wind surprises 
    Weeps. 

Viols there amid the gloaming 
    Hail the sun that dies, 
And the white spray in its foaming 
    “Miserere” sighs. 

Harmony the heavens embraces, 
    And the breeze is lifting free 
To the chanting of the races 
    Of the sea. 

Clarions of horizons calling 
    Strike a symphony most rare, 
As if mountain voices calling 
    Vibrate there. 

As though dread, unseen, were walking, 
    As though awesome echoes bore 
On the distant breeze’s quaking 
    The lion’s roar.
 

Translated from the Spanish by Thomas Walsh

Rubén Darío (1867—1916) was an influential Nicaraguan poet, journalist, and diplomat who initiated the Spanish-language literary movement known as modernismo(modernism).

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