Along the San Andrés Road

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Literature · Subcategory: Literary fragments · Year: 1925 · Authors: Francisco Izquierdo

The writer Francisco Izquierdo (La Laguna, Tenerife, 1886-Havana, Cuba, 1971) in his book entitled Medallas , published in Cuba in 1925, recalls his personal memories and landscapes of his homeland. In the first part of this poetry collection the author dedicates it to the Santa Cruz de Tenerife of his adolescence, capturing in his poem "Por la carretera de San Andrés" the spirit of that road in the early years of the 20th century as follows:

 

«My friend and I went today along the road

of San Andrés. It is clear: a long ledge

that slides along the edge of the leafy hills

over the very foamy, chatty surf.

A dead pupil - the sun - only waits

for the eyelid to close resigned and submissive.

Our talk is gentle. We walk without haste.

Silence is everywhere as if it wanted to speak.

It is night. The mountains dissolve blurred.

No moon. No stars. Smoky shadows pass,

little vapours, barges with their red lanterns.

-My spirit, he said, is much blacker.

-Darkness, and with lanterns?... Oh, your little eyes!

Go. Walk. Your spontaneous light will turn on.»

28.483043, -16.239077