Al brillar un relámpago[2] nacemos,
Y aún dura su fulgor, cuando morimos:
¡Tan corto es el vivir![3]
La gloria y el amor tras que corremos,
Sombras de un sueño son que perseguimos:
¡Despertar es morir!
[Footnote 1: Each stanza of this poem is composed of two hendecasyllabic verses of the first class, followed by a heptasyllabic verso agudo. The rhyme scheme of the poem is a, b, c, a, b, c.]
[Footnote 2: Al brillar un relampago = 'At a lightning's flash'; that is to say, at the first gleam from a flash of lightning.
[Footnote 3: Tan corto es el vivir. The brevity of human life is naturally enough a favorite theme with poets. Compare—
A Moment's Halt—a momentary taste
Of BEING from the Well amid the Waste—
And Lo!—the phantom Caravan has reached
The NOTHING it set out from—
Oh, make haste!
The Rubáiyát of Omay Khayyám, 48th quatrain, Edward Fitzgerald's translation.]