Title of translation: 
Song of Being and Nonbeing
Original title: 
Romance del ser y no ser
Original author: 
Santiago Alba Rico
Country of origin: 
España
Translator: 
Carolina Finley
Date of source text publication: 
2019
Date of translation publication: 
2021
Abstract: 

“Romance del ser y no ser” (presented here as “Song of Being and Nonbeing”) was written by Santiago Alba Rico for the European Philosophical Song Contest. According to the author, is a metaphysical poem in which he uses a Spanish form par excellence, the romance, with the purpose, one might say, of philosophizing with the body. The first half of the "Song" describes the immanence of Being, which is both Being itself and its opposite, while, all of a sudden, in stanza thirteen, the possibility of transcendence materializes in the form of Love. The translation presented here focuses on conveying the immediacy of the language and the intense feeling the original poem evokes from the struggle of Being. --Carolina Finley, the translator.

Genre: 
Poesía / Poetry
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