Text: En un portalejo pobre

Gaspar Fernándes (1570-1629)

Original Text	English Translation

En un portalejo pobre de vnas groseras pizarras cuya tosca cara afeyta el sol iman de la escarcha Esta Dios en un pesebre con un vestido de grana y aunque la grana es de polvo oy haze de polvo gala. la tierra es çielo carne la palabra y la madre virgen y el portal alcaçar. Por cama escogio vn pesebre y aunque es de campo le puso el cielo de estrellas y las cortinas de paja. Y con el tiempo inclemente escupe siersos y elados baja la cama a vn portal porque de amores se abrasa. la tierra es çielo, carne la palabra y la madre virgen y el portal alcaçar. Son los doçelos dos soles y las telas telarañas que con las luzes del niño paresen de oro y nacara. Es el portal parayso y cherubines le guardan con ramos de verde oliva en ves del fuego y la espada. la tierra es çielo carne la palabra y la madre virgen y el portal alcaçar.	In a lean-to shed, constructed of rough-hewn slabs of slate, whose coarse outline the sun bedecks by attracting hoar-frost lies God in a hay-trough. His bunting is but hay; yet though the hay’s but dust, today this dust is finery. Earth becomes heaven, the Word becomes flesh, a Mother this maiden, this cow-shed a palace! As bed, He chose a manger, and though it’s in the open, from straw it draws its curtains, and for its ceiling, stars. And though the inclement weather blows bitter winds and frosts, in this shed, the bed’s a bower for it’s warmed by love’s own glow. Earth becomes heaven, the Word becomes flesh, a Mother this maiden, this cow-shed a palace! Mary’s sun-like eyes its canopy, its drapes are spider-webs; but through the eyes of the Child they’re mother-of-pearl and gold! This stable now is paradise and cherubim watch over it, not with fire and the sword, but branches of sprouting olive. Earth becomes heaven, the Word becomes flesh, a Mother this maiden, this cow-shed a palace!

Translation: Juan Pedro Gaffney R.