La balanguera [English translation]

O mysterious Balanguera,

like a spider of fine art,

her spinning wheel emptieth

and off our lives it pulleth.

Like a Parca she pondereth,

and seweth well tomorrow’s cloth.

The Balanguera spinneth, spinneth

and the Balanguera shall spin.

Her glimpse to the past she turneth,

O’er shades of ancestry she watcheth,

and of the new spring she owneth;

Of the seed’s cover she knoweth.

She knoweth that the stump higher climbeth,

the deeper its roots can go.

The Balanguera spinneth, spinneth

and the Balanguera shall spin.

From traditions and from hopes

The flag for the youth she weaveth

as one who a wedding veil prepareth

with hairs of gold and silver

of the cradle that groweth

of the old age that departeth.

The Balanguera spinneth, spinneth

and the Balanguera shall spin.