Tuesday, August 03, 2010

Rainy Season in the Amazon

I was recently reading a very old history of the conquest of Mexico and Peru and came across the following lines attributed to an old Spanish Conquistador who had the misfortune of getting lost and wandering for over a year through the Amazon rain forest. Anyone who has traveled through the jungle during the rains will certainly be able to identify with his sufferings! It made me quite nostalgic about the rainy season! It is, of course, written in Spanish and I have left it with his inventive spelling but I have tried to give it a very rough translation into English as well.

 Las Amazonas

" Sin que el sol en este tiempo
Su cara ver nos permita,
Ni las nubes taberneras
Cesse de echamos encima
Dilubios inagotables,
Que hasta el alma nos bautizan.
Cayeron los mas enfermos,
Porque las ropas podridas
Con el eterno agua va,
Nos dexo en las carnes vivas."

The Amazon

The sun, during all this time 
Would not permit its face to be seen,
Nor would the  dark, billowing clouds
Cease to pour down upon us
Their  never ending floods
Until even our very souls were baptized.
The sick and weak began to die, 
Our clothes began to rot
 And because of the eternal rains
we were left with only our  raw, but living, flesh.

6 comments:

Findalis said...

Sounds like Washington DC in the summer.

Kathy said...

What an experience! I can only imagine! One day I hope to make it to the Amazon! I'm now experiencing my first monsoon, (R. has been here before) and although we do have lovely times of beautiful sunshine mixed with the rain, rain, rain, we are starting to get rotting clothes in the closets (that we keep open so they'll get air)! I heard that putting charcoal around the closet helps, so we're trying it. I'll let you know if it works. What did you do in the jungle?

firepig said...

It is said that water releases our entrapment in emotions, and cleans our spirits, but this can be frightening at the same time.

Gringo said...

I am reminded of the movie Aguirre, the Wrath of God. While water is a necessity of life, as in all things, an excess of it is harmful. Moderation in most things.

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