Quevedo: I am a was and a will be and a tired is

1-"He who spends time regretting the past loses the present and risks the future”

2- Lies are greeted as wit, malice is looked upon as elegant conversation while cunning roguery is dismissed as thoughtlessness, and shamelessness is regarded as courage.
Quotations of Francisco De Quevedo


  A. Su vida   +       B. su obra  +      C. Posteritas         POETRY. 3 poems

1- The first tercet  from Quevedo's sonnet "¡Ah de la vida!":

Ayer se fue, mañana no ha llegado,

Hoy se está yendo sin parar un punto;

Soy un fue, y un seré y un es cansado

“Yesterday went off, tomorrow has not arrived / today is slipping away without stopping at all; / I am a was and a will be and a tired is.”

1- Conoce la diligencia con que se acerca la muerte, 
y  también la conveniencia de su venida, (....)
Si agradable descanso, paz serena
la muerte en traje de dolor envía,
señas da su desdén de cortesía:
más tiene de caricia que de pena.
(....)
Llegue rogada, pues mi bien previene;
hálleme agradecido, no asustado;
mi vida acabe, y mi vivir ordene.
2- Recognizing the diligence with which death approaches, 
also the desirability of her arrival,  (...)
If pleasant rest, serene tranquility
death offers me, dressed up to look like grief
her scorn to me resembles courtesy:
there's more caress in her than penalty.
(...)
I beg she come, my welfare she insures;
thankful may she find me, not afraid;
she'll end my life, my living she'll arrange. 



3- Artificiosa evasión de la muerte, si valiera;
pero, entretanto, es ingeniosa (link)

Pierdes el tiempo, Muerte, en mi herida,
pues quien no vive no padece muerte;
si has de acabar mi vida, has de volverte
a aquellos ojos donde está mi vida.Al sagrado en que habita retraída,
aun siendo sin piedad, no has de atreverte;
que serás vida, si llegase a verte,
y quedarás de ti desconocida.
Yo soy ceniza que sobró a la llama;
nada dejó por consumir el fuego
que en amoroso incendio se derrama.
Vuélvete al miserable, cuyo ruego,
por descansar en su dolor, te llama:
que lo que yo no tengo, no lo niego.

3- Artful evasion of death, if it worked; 
but in the meantime, it is clever

Death, you're wasting time upon my wound,
for he who does not live will never die;
if you're to end my life, you must return
to those eyes where my very life resides.To that pure ground where it, alone, now dwells,
though you've no mercy, you won't dare to go;
for there, if I saw you, you would be life,
and you yourself would then not even know.
I am the ash left over from the flame;
nothing was left to burn by the great fire
that in a loving blaze intensifies.
Go find someone who's wretched, whose loud plea,
to bring relief to his pain calls to you:
for what I do not have, I'll not deny.