[Footnote 5: No sepa á do camina. This doubt seems to assail frequently the mind of Becquer, as it does that of the old Persian poet Omar Khayyam:
(XXIX)
Into this Universe, and Why not knowing
Nor Whence, like water willy-nilly flowing;
And out of it, as Wind along the Waste
I know not Whither, willy-nilly blowing.
(LXIV)
Strange, is it not? that of the myriads who
Before us pass'd the door of Darkness through,
Not one returns to tell us of the Road,
Which to discover we must travel too.
Rubáiyát—Edward Fitzgerald's translation.]
[Footnote 6: el corazón y la cabeza. Compare—
It is the heart, and not the brain,
That to the highest doth attain.
VII[1]
Del salón en el ángulo obscuro,
De su dueño tal vez olvidada,
Silenciosa y cubierta de polvo
Veíase el arpa.
¡Cuánta nota dormía en sus cuerdas,
Como el pájaro duerme en las ramas,
Esperando la mano de nieve
Que sabe arrancarlas![2]
¡Ay! pensé; ¡cuántas veces el genio
Así duerme en el fondo del alma,
Y una voz, como Lázaro,[3] espera
Que le diga: «Levántate y anda!»
[Footnote 1: This poem is composed of decasyllabic anapests and of hexasyllabic amphibrachs, thus:
— — / | — — / | — — / | —
— / — | — / —
The even verses have the same assonance throughout.]