Sapo cancionero [English translation]

Toad of the night, lyrical toad,

Who lives dreaming next to your lagoon,

Tenor of the puddles, grotesque troubadour,

You're bewitched by your love for the moon.

I know of your life devoid of glory;

And know the tragedies of your restless soul

Likewise, that madness of loving the moon1

Is the eternal madness of every poet.

Lyrical toad,

Sing your song,

Because life is dismal2

If we don't live it with any hope.3

~ ~ ~

You know that you're ugly, ugly and misshapen;

That's why by day you hide your ugliness

And by night you sing your melancholy

And your song resounds as a litany.

Your voices ring out in candid obstinacy;

Your verses are in vain for their striking beauty;

Don't you know, perchance, that the moon is cold,

Because it gave its blood to form the stars?

Lyrical toad

Sing your song,

Because life is dismal2

If we don't live it with any hope.3

1. "Folly" or "foolishness" would also work, but I prefer the way madness evokes the hardest criticism and then recasts it in the next line.2. a. b. Literally, "sad," but this is a case where a perfectly reasonable understatement in Spanish doesn't take on a similarly serious tone in English, and could be misinterpreted as trivial or sarcastic.3. a. b. "Ilusión" in the context of love is a dearly held wish that sustains the person who has it. Its other meaning, something ethereal and fantastical, doesn't have the same implication of untrustworthiness. Rather, its fragility accentuates its preciousness.