“Dos Sirenos”

From Elevación : (Nuevos poemas) by Amado Nervo. Mexico, 1917.

There are two sirens singing: Love and Money;

but you are as knowledgeable as Ulysses, far-sighted and shrewd:

Cover the captain’s and rower’s ears

and be tied to the mast of your ship,

that, if you save Sirte, your prize is peace!

Money is deception and Love is deception:

when you think you have them, a transmutation

Love is changed into boredom; barter gold for tin...

Love is calm and pleasure hurts.

(You already knew this, good King Solomon!)

But the man foolish for gold is confused

and Love vainly follows the fleeting flight...

Only the wise, the enlightened, looks at them with contempt.

Money is a lie and Love is a lie:

if you defeat them, you conquer the supreme good: Peace!