A Noel
fairy-tale figures mingle with tenderness for neighbors and orphans reminding us that Christmas lives most powerfully in imagination and care for others. The poem shines with Mistral’s signature warmth simplicity and humanity.
Noel el de la noche del prodigio
Noel of the marvelous night
Noel de barbas caudalosas
Noel of the tremendous beard
Noel de las sorpresas delicadas
Noel of delicate surprises
y las pisadas sigilosas!
and secret footsteps we cannot hear.
Esta noche te dejo mi calzado
This night I leave you my shoes
colgado en los balcones;
set out on the window sill.
antes que hayas pasado por mi casa
Please don't empty your sack
no agotes los bolsones.
before you pass my house.
Noel Noel vas a encontrar mojadas
Noel Noel you will find
mis medias de rocio
my stockings are wet with dew
espiando con ojos picarones
for my mischievous eyes have been spying
tus barbazas de rio ...
on the river of your beard.
Sacude el llanto y deja cada una
Take away the crying leave my shoes
tiesa dura y llenita
firm and hard and full
con el anillo de la Cenicienta
stuffed with toys Cinderella's wedding ring
y el lobo de Caperucita ...
Red Riding Hood's wolf.
Y no olvides a Marta. También deja
And there's Martha don't forget!
su zapatito abierto.
She too left her empty shoe.
Es mi vecina y yo la cuido desde
She lives next door and since her mama died
que su mamita ha muerto.
I look after her.
¡Noel viejo Noel de las manzanas
Old Noel Noel of big hands
Rebosadas de dones
overflowing with gifts
De los ojitos picaros y azules
Noel of twinkling blue eyes
Y la barba en vellones! ...
and beard of streaming fleece.
[Tr. Doris Dana Selected Poems of Gabriel Mistral John Hopkins Press 1961]