Park

Gastón Baquero was born in Cuba in 1918 and died in Madrid, Spain in 1997. He studied to be an agronomist, but early contact with José Lezama Lima and other poets of the literary group called Orígenes turned his interests toward poetry and journalism. He became a columnist for the Havana daily newspaper, Diario de la Marina, specializing in politics.

After the success of the Cuban revolution, the island became untenable for Baquero, and he stopped writing poetry until he was exiled to Spain in 1959. He supported himself by teaching journalism at the university level, and generously opened the door of his house to the many young Cubans who passed through Madrid.

In 1984, Baquero published his complete poems. In 1991, he brought out his last single collection, Poemas invisibles. His Poesía completa was published posthumously by Editorial Verbum in 1998. The editor of that volume, Pío E. Serrano, has written that Baquero "has become the most influential poet of new generations of poets in Cuba. Within him there was always the impassioned heartbeat of his island…"

Parque	Park
El parque de mi pueblo tiene cuatro laureles y el busto de un patriota. Cuando la tarde es hecha una lumbre tranquila, arriban silenciosos los ancianos. Luego aparecen los luminosos hijos de mi pueblo. ¡Qué tiniebla y duelos se aposentan sobre pechos durísimos de vírgenes! Ellos andan soñando las verdades más dulces, la entrega de su sangre al olvido del hombre. ¡Qué tristeza da verlos errabundos en torno a la ansiedad de las estrellas! El parque de mi pueblo tiene cuatro laureles y el busto de un patriota.	The park in my village has four laurels and some patriot's stone head. When the afternoon turns into a quiet fire, the old people arrive in silence. Followed by the luminous children of my village... There is such darkness and grief lodged in their stony, virginal chests! They drift and dream the sweetest truths -- surrendering their blood to human oblivion. It saddens me to see them lost amidst the anguish of the stars! The park in my village has four laurels and some patriot's stone head.

Parque

Park

El parque de mi pueblo tiene
cuatro laureles y el busto de un patriota.

Cuando la tarde es hecha
una lumbre tranquila,
arriban silenciosos los ancianos.

Luego aparecen
los luminosos hijos de mi pueblo.
¡Qué tiniebla y duelos se aposentan
sobre pechos durísimos de vírgenes!
Ellos andan soñando las verdades más dulces,
la entrega de su sangre al olvido del hombre.
¡Qué tristeza da verlos errabundos
en torno a la ansiedad de las estrellas!

El parque de mi pueblo tiene
cuatro laureles y el busto de un patriota.

The park in my village has
four laurels
and some patriot's stone head.

When the afternoon turns
into a quiet fire,
the old people arrive in silence.

Followed by
the luminous children of my village...
There is such darkness and grief
lodged in their stony, virginal chests!
They drift and dream the sweetest truths --
surrendering their blood to human oblivion.
It saddens me to see them lost
amidst the anguish of the stars!

The park in my village has
four laurels
and some patriot's stone head.

The Angel of Rain: Selected Poems of Gastón Baquero, translated by Greg Simon & Steven F. White

Download the translation (PDF).
Download Baquero's original Spanish text (PDF).

“Parque,” ca. 1940; appears in the 1984 edition of Collected Poems manuscript courtesy Pío E. Serrano
Parque Martí (formerly parque Dominguez), probably in Baquero’s home town Banes. Photo courtesy Efraín Rodríguez Santana.

1.2 Fall 2002