Edad Media tardía·c. 1476·fragmento (primera copla de cuarenta)
Jorge Manrique
Recuerde el alma dormida,
avive el seso y despierte
contemplando
cómo se pasa la vida,
cómo se viene la muerte
tan callando;
cuán presto se va el placer,
cómo, después de acordado,
da dolor,
cómo, a nuestro parecer,
cualquiera tiempo pasado
fue mejor.
Context
Jorge Manrique wrote the Coplas in 1476 after his father, Don Rodrigo Manrique, died. The full poem has forty strophes; the first sets the entire tone — wake up, life is short, time is a river, everything ends in the sea. Memorised by Spanish schoolchildren for five hundred years. The structure (octosílabo + tetrasílabo alternating, abc-abc rhyme) is itself called 'la estrofa manriqueña'.
In plain English prose
Let the sleeping soul awake, let the mind sharpen and watch how life passes, how death comes so silently — how quickly the pleasure leaves, how once remembered it grieves us, how in our view all past time was better.
Read it out loud at least once.
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