To a Composer of Décimas
Machine translation from the original, not yet reviewed by the author.
Original in Spanish
How hard you will have to fightmust be a spur to you;this you must understand:do not let yourself be defeated.
IFriend, do not be amazedthat I sing to you this time;I will try—with simplicity—to praise your good name today.Listen to me, good man,you will value my message:You must not lose heart,never stop writing!,in spite of seeinghow hard you will have to fight
IIYou will feel the roughnessthat is found down in the abyss;if this makes you lose heartmore sorrows will come to you.You will take on the undertakingsthat are hardest to carry outand you must also wantto better yourself each day;sorrow or joymust be a spur to you.
IIIThat God be with youis what I ask of him today;my friendship here I give yousince you gave me yours here.You will always have in mea friend to love,a brother you can seein the one who is inviting youfor us to keep on rising,this you must understand.
IVYou are a genuine writerand your verse is most sincere,and so I say, with certainty,that it is a gift upon your road.Very bright is your destiny!And now, to bring this to an end,I only want to addthe summary of my idea:even when the going gets roughdo not let yourself be defeated!