Then, after two months of keeping this poem a little secret from Papi, I made a mistake.
We were all in the car on the way to the store when Siena started making up her own little story about airplanes and doggies. I thought it was cute and wanted Juan to hear, so I asked Siena to tell us the story in a loud voice. She started reciting the poem, and I was so worried about ruining the surprise that I overreacted and yelled out, "No Siena! Not that one!" Of course, THAT tipped Juan off and he just smiled with a shocked look on his face. I was so upset that it didn't happen on Father's Day that tears started to well up in my eyes and I couldn't stop apologizing. Juan was still trying to figure out if it was what he was thinking of when I got my emotions under control. I asked him if he would like to hear the poem and he said yes. Luck was in our favor because Siena didn't get nervous or distracted throughout the entire poem and she recited it completely by herself. Juan even got a bit choked up. So I was relieved, after all was said and done, that it made Juan shocked, and happy, and sentimental all at the same time. He told me that I would probably never be able to top that Father's Day gift, and I think I have to agree.
A Margarita Debayle (To Margarita Debayle)
written by Ruben Dario in 1908
Margarita, está linda la mar,
y el viento
lleva esencia sutil de azahar;
yo siento
en el alma una alondra cantar;
tu acento.
Margarita, te voy a contar
un cuento.
"Éste era un rey que tenÃa
un palacio de diamantes,
una tienda hecha del dÃa
y un rebaño de elefantes.
Un quiosco de malaquita,
un gran manto de tisú,
y una gentil princesita, tan bonita,
Margarita, tal bonita como tú.
Una tarde la princesa
vio una estrella aparecer;
la princesa era traviesa
y la quiso ir a coger.
La querÃa para hacerla
decorar un prendedor,
con un verso y una perla,
una pluma y una flor.
A princesas primorosas
se parecen mucho a ti
cortan lirios, cortan rosas,
cortan astros. Son asÃ.
Pues se fue la niña bella,
bajo el cielo y sobre El mar,
a cortar la blanca estrella
que la hacÃa suspirar
Y siguió camino arriba,
por la luna y más allá,
mas lo malo es que ella iba
sin permisio del papá.
Cuando estuvo ya de vuelta
de los parques del Señor,
se miraba toda envuelta
en un dulce resplandor.
Y el rey dijo: "Qué te has hecho?
Te he buscado y no te hallé;
y que tienes en el pecho,
que encendido se te ve?"
La princesa no mentÃa.
Y asi, dijo la verdad:
"Fui a cortar la estrella mÃa
a la azul inmensidad".
Y el rey clama: "No te he dicho
que el azul no hay que tocar?
Qué locura! Qué capricho!
El Señor se va a enojar".
Y dice ella: "No hubo intento;
yo me fui no sé por qué.
Por las olas y en el viento
fui a la estrella y la corté".
Y el papa dice enojado:
"Un castigo has de tener:
vuelve al cielo, y lo robado
vas ahora a devolver".
La princesa se entristece
por su dulce flor de luz,
cuando entonces aparece
sonriendo el buen Jesús.
Y asi dice: "En mis campiñas
esa rosa le ofrecÃ;
son mis flores de las niñas
que al sonar piensan en mÃ".
Viste el rey ropas brillantes,
y luego hace desfilar
cuatrocientos elefantes
a la orilla de la mar.
La princesa está bella,
pues ya tiene el prendedor
en que lucen, con la estrella,
verso, perla, pluma y flor.
Margarita, esta lindá la mar,
y el viento
lleva esencia sutil de azahar:
tu aliento.
Y que lejos de mà vas a estar,
guarda, niña, un gentil pensamiento
al que un dÃa te quiso contar
un cuento.
English translation:
Margarita, how beautiful the sea is:
still and blue.
The orange blossom in the breezes
drifting through.
The skylark in its glory
has your accent too:
Here, Margarita, is a story
made for you.
A king there was and far away,
with a palace of diamonds
and a shopfront made of day.
He had a herd of elephants,
A kiosk, more, of malachite,
and a robe of rarest hue
also a princess who was light
of thought and beautiful as you.
But one afternoon the princess
saw high in the heavens appear
a star, and being mischievous,
resolved at once to bring it near.
It would form the centrepiece
of a brooch hung with verse, pearl,
feathers, flowers: a caprice
of course of a little girl.
But also, because a princess,
exquisite, delicate like you,
the others then cut irises
roses, asters: as girls do.
But, alas, our little one went far
across the sea, beneath the sky,
and all to cut the one white star
that saw her wondering and sigh.
She went beyond where the heavens are
and to the moon said, au revoir.
How naughty to have flown so far
without the permission of Papa.
She returned at last, and though gone
from the high heavens of accord,
still there hung about and shone
the soft brilliance of our Lord.
Which the king noted, said: you,
child, drive me past despair,
but what is that strange, shining dew
on your hands, your face, your hair?
She spoke the truth; her words shine
with the clear lightness of the air:
I went to seek what should be mine
in that blue immensity up there.
Are then the heavens for our display,
with things that you must touch?
You can be altogether too outré,
child, for God to like you much.
To hear that I am sorry, truly,
for I had no plans as such. But,
once across the windy sky and sea
I had so much that flower to cut.
Whereupon, in punishment,
the king said, I'd be much beholden
if you'd go this moment and consent
to return what you have stolen.
So sad was then our little princess
looking at her sweet flower of light,
until and smiling at her distress
there stood the Lord Jesus Christ.
Those fields are as I willed them,
and your rose but signatory
to the flowers up there that children
have in dreaming formed of me.
Again the king is laughing, brilliant
in his robes's rich royalty,
he troops the herd of elephant,
in their four hundred, by the sea.
Adored and delicate, the princess
is once more a little girl
who keeps for brooch the star and, yes,
the flowers, and the feathers, the pearl.
Beautiful, Margarita, the sea is,
still and blue:
with your sweet breath have all the breezes
blossomed too.
Now soon from me and far you'll be,
but, little one, stay true
to a gentle thought made a story
once for you.
