Stamps | Poets & Letters

On Tuesday, we celebrated poet Pablo Neruda with our post about the movie Il Postino. Neruda was a great fan of poet, Julia de Burgos. We love the Julia de Burgos portrait on this new stamp from the U.S. Postal Service. De Burgos was one of Puerto Rico's most esteemed poets. Neruda stated that her calling was to be the greatest poet of the Americas. Here is a translation of her poem El mar y tu. The Julia de Burgos stamp is the 26th stamp in the USPS Literary Art Series.

The sea and you

The stroke of the sea upon my door
is a blue sensation between my toes,
and your impetuous leap through my spirit
is no less blue, an eternal birth.

All the color of awakened aurora
the sea and you swim to my encounter,
and in the madness of loving me
until the shipwreck
you both go breaking the ports and the oars.

If I just had a ship of seagulls,
and could for an instant stop them,
and shout my voice that they fight
in a simple duel of mystery!

That one in the other might find
his own voice,
interweave their dreams in the wind,
bind stars in their eyes
so that they give, united, their beams.

May there be a duel of music in the air
the opened magnolias of their kisses,
that the waves dress in passions
and the passion dress in sailboats.

All the color of awakened aurora
may the sea and you expand it into a dream
that it carry my ship of seagulls
and leave me in the water of two skies.

Compiled and translated by Jack Agueros, Curbstone Press