for the poets of LexPoMo
 
 
It was, for humankind, a time of divine mercy.
Swans previously sang once, only then to die. 
When its voice is heard, Wagner’s swan clearly
is in the midst of dawning, it sings to bring life.
 
Above the human ocean, the tempestuous storm,
swan’s song is heard; it never ceases to be heard
synchronizing the hammer of old germanic Thor 
and the trumpets that sing of Angantyr’s sword. 
 
Oh Swan! Oh sacred bird! Could it be her, Helen
who sprang from Leda’s blue egg with elegance,
an immortal princess of such beauty, if at all real.
 
If so, under her white wings, this brand-new poetry,
is a spark and it is rising, a light of harmonic glory.
Poetry, the eternal torch, embodiment of the ideal.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
*Nicaraguan writer Rubén Darío (1867–1916) is widely credited as the father of modern 20th-century Spanish and Latin American poetry. He spearheaded Modernismo, a revolutionary literary movement that completely transformed Hispanic literature and established the foundation for modern poetry.
 –
El cisne by Rubén Dario
translation by Coleman Davis