Plaza / Cruz: Cuando el caballo se para
Cuando el caballo se para (When the Horse Stops)
Across the scorched plain
Is the path that it travels.
Look how it goes on alone
When the horse stops.
Little road, little road, little road,
Who gave you all that savannah?
And who gave you so much leg?
Road, don't you ever grow weary?
But I'll die of heartache
If I ignore your gall:
Road that still goes on alone,
Even though the horse has stopped.
Juan Bautista Plaza : from Siete canciones venezolanas (1932)
Original Spanish poem by Venezuelan poet Luís Barrios Cruz (1898-1968)
--English version ©2011, by E. Lein