The Sun, the Rose and the Child by Miguel Hernandez

The Sun, the Rose and the Child

Photo by Hispania Nostra

 

The sun, the rose, and the child

were born the flowers of the day.

Things of every day

suns, flowers, new children.

 

Tomorrow I’ll be no more:

someone else will be real.

I’ll be no more, beyond

those who wish for their memory.

 

The flower of a day is tallest

at the foot of the smallest thing.

Flower of light, the lightning flash,

and flower of the moment, time.

 

Between the flowers you went.

Between the flowers I remain.

 

Miguel Hernandez died on this day in 1942.   He is one of the greatest and best-loved Spanish poets.

He fought on the side of the Republican forces fighting Franco and the Nationalists but was unable to escape into exile after the triumph of Franco’s troops, and died in prison, of tuberculosis, in 1942.