A una Nariz – Francisco de Quevedo
Érase un hombre a una nariz pegado,
érase una nariz superlativa,
érase una nariz sayón y escriba,
érase un peje espada muy barbado;
era un reloj de sol mal encarado,
érase una alquitara pensativa,
érase un elefante boca arriba,
era Ovidio Nasón más narizado.
Érase un espolón de una galera,
érase una pirámide de Egito,
las doce tribus de narices era;
Érase un naricísimo infinito,
frisón archinariz, caratulera,
sabañón garrafal, morado y frito.
To a Nose – Francisco de Quevedo
Once there was a man stuck to a nose,
a nose too full of glory to describe.
It was a nose of hangman and of scribe,
it was a bearded swordfish off the coast.
It was a sundial with its angles wrong.
You could’ve brewed a hooch inside that snout.
It was an elephant, its trunk stretched out,
it bettered Bignose Ovid’s Roman conk.
It was the ram that pierced the galley hull.
A pyramid. it would be Egypt’s pride.
The twelve tribes of the nose, it was them all.
Nose infinitely nosy – nose divine,
archnose, the mask hung on the seller’s stall,
enormous chilblain, purplish and fried.