Ballade of an Inca King

Ah! Leave the gold, wealth and land

Says the Inca King…;
In Spain, they leave the bustling streets,
For sail to Peruvian shores;

The murmur of the gold is sweet,

It glows and glistens like the sun
A mountain of gold, or the grave
Awaits the human, Inca-god…!

Spaniards sing their songs of victory

Where breaks the green Peruvian sea;
Who now, worships the Inca King (?)
Guarded behind prisons doors—?

They chatter about his golden rings

They watch the winds cross the shores…
They count the days that idle by,
For gold they worship and will die.

Envoy.

Another spring will never pass,

Swallowed up by death, and death—
The Spanish voices combine—:
Will kill the Inca-King in time;

Before the gold arrives I fear…

It all will be hidden low, low
In the hollow of the earth, in the
Moonlit tunnels of Peru!…

#731 6/13/2005

Just a Note: Ricardo Palma has been some of my inspiration to a high degree on the traditions of Peru; as I have tried to put some into poetic verse. The Inca in general has been an ongoing theme I seem to like within my Peruvian poetry, and several characters surrounding them, and locations, such as the Andes, Cuzco, Huancayo, Lima: all in Peru of course; with such names as: Francisco Pizarro, and Bolivar, Atahualpa [Inca King]; Titu-Atauchi, his brother. Dona Veronica Aristizabal.

Poet/Dennis Siluk
http://dennissiluk.tripod.com