Happy Birthday, José

José Martí was born today in Havana, Cuba, in 1853. He was exiled to Spain at 17, later moving to Mexico, Guatemala, and back to Cuba, from which he was again deported to Spain; he fled to France and then the US, living in New York and working for Cuban independence. He joined the war in 1895 and died shortly after the invasion.

Cultivo una rosa blanca

Cultivo una rosa blanca,
En julio como en enero,
Para el amigo sincero
Que me da su mano franca.
Y para el cruel que me arranca
El corazón con que vivo,
Cardo ni oruga cultivo:
Cultivo la rosa blanca.

I have a white rose to tend
In July as in January;
I give it to the true friend
Who offers his frank hand to me.
And for the cruel one whose blows
Break the heart by which I live,
Thistle nor thorn do I give:
For him, too, I have a white rose.


Yo no puedo olvidar nunca...

Yo no puedo olvidar nunca
La mañanita de otoño
En que le salió un retoño
A la pobre rama trunca.

La mañanita en que, en vano,
Junto a la estufa apagada,
Una niña enamorada
Le tendió al viejo la mano.


I'll never forget, I vow,
That fall morning long ago,
When I saw a new leaf grow
Upon the old withered bow.

That dear morning when for naught,
By a stove whose flame had died,
A girl in love stood beside
An old man, and his hand sought.

Translations by Manuel A. Tellechea


(More of his poems in Spanish and in English here)