Category Archives: Navarrette Quatrain (Poetic Form)

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Happy are… / Felices son…

Happy are the long nights of dreams,
passionate caress, as the voracious roar
of the raging wind beneath tense waves
giving a breath of life to the surf.

Happy are the noble turns of fate,
a fleeting embrace holding me up
over the cusp of a sudden death
that is giving a new meaning to all.

Happy are the days when feathers fall
just drenched with weeping from rain
and nothing else falls, nothing but eternity,
swaying silently on shattered footsteps.

Happy are gray flowers in the fields
awakening only within my dreams,
and while fate crowns your absence
I diluted taciturn, where the feather fell…
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Felices son las noches largas de sueños,
caricia apasionada, como el rugido voraz
del viento furioso bajo las olas tensas,
dándole un soplo de vida a la espuma.

Felices son las vueltas nobles del destino,
un abrazo fugaz que me sostiene en pie
sobre la cúspide de una muerte repentina
que la va dando un nuevo sentido a todo.

Felices son los días donde caen las plumas
empapadas solo por el llanto de la lluvia
y nada mas cae, nada mas que la eternidad,
tambaleándose silentes sobre pasos rotos.

Felices son las flores grises en los campos
que despiertan solamente en mis sueños
y mientras el destino corona tu ausencia
me diluyo taciturno, donde la pluma cayó…

Gavriel Navarro© 2013
Summer dreams

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Today in April / Hoy en Abril

Today I was surprised by Spring
with open arms, as one who feels
the sudden arrival of a gentle zephyr
extolling the soft heat of the scenery.

Today April knocks at my door and grins
bringing joy to the sadness of my soul
with the faint scent of early flowers
on a solitary cloud muddying the sky.

Today I left behind my gelid dreams
against a horizon, not as pale and cold
opening my windows to the vernal wind
in this afternoon sieved through love.

Today I take you in my chest with pride
surprised by your soul, constant and naked
because April is no longer a stranger
or a passing dream that is here to stay.
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Hoy me sorprendió la Primavera
con brazos abiertos, como quien siente
la llegada abrupta de un céfiro gentil
exaltando el suave calor del paisaje.

Hoy Abril toca a mi puerta y sonríe
trayendo alegría a la tristeza de mi alma
con el aroma tenue de flores tempranas
sobre una nube solitaria enturbiando al cielo.

Hoy dejé atrás a mis sueños gélidos
frente a un horizonte, no tan pálido y frio
abriendo mis ventanas al viento vernal
en esta tarde tamizada por el amor.

Hoy te llevo con orgullo en mi pecho
sorprendido por tu alma, constante y desnuda
porque Abril ya no es un desconocido
o un sueño pasajero que llegó para quedarse.

Gavriel Navarro© 2013

Navarrette Quatrains
Today in April

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It rains / Llueve

It rains, and on the horizon
The sun delves into stealth
seeking to kiss the earth
intimately, behind dark clouds.

It rains above love
consummated in thick fog
Shaping the night
beyond its darkness.

It rains returnless, and now
Your body rain down on me
and my eyes are pouring rain
overshadowing the sky.

It rains, and how it rains!
crowning the horizon
while love blooms
returnless under the rain…
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Llueve, y en el horizonte
El sol se ahonda en sigilo
buscando besar a la tierra
Íntimamente, detrás de nubes negras

Llueve sobre el amor
consumado en espesa niebla
dándole forma a la noche
mas allá de sus tinieblas

Llueve sin retorno, y ahora
Tu cuerpo llueve sobre mi
y mis ojos llueven a raudales
opacando al cielo

Llueve, y como llueve!
coronando el horizonte
mientras florece el amor
sin retorno bajo la lluvia…

Gavriel Navarro© 2013
llueve

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Life is emptying / La vida se va vaciando

I have no magical worlds.
Only the poet can see them
far beyond my mysteries,
and drink the murky water of soul.

I have no reproaches
just hurry to reach death,
that is nothing more simple
than time disguised as a rose.

I have no empty spaces,
and maybe now I do not care.
I searched for air inside the lost
where the sorrows are transient.

I have no desire to be valiant
to conquer a thousand worlds in vain.
I walk without reproaching life on a tear
filling with poetry its empty spaces…
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No me quedan mundos mágicos,
Solo el poeta puede verlos
mas allá de mis misterios,
y beber el agua turbia del alma.

No me quedan reproches
solo prisa por llegar a la muerte,
que no es otra cosa mas simple
que el tiempo disfrazado de rosa.

No me quedan espacios vacuos,
y tal vez ahora no me importe.
Yo busqué aire adentro de lo perdido
en donde las dolores son fugaces.

No me quedan ganas de ser valiente
para conquistar mil mundos en vano.
Yo camino sin reprochar la vida en una lagrima
llenando de poesía sus espacios vacíos…

Gavriel Navarro© 2013
La vida

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How to write a “Navarrette Quatrain”

Here is a  clear explanation how to create “Navarrette Quatrains” a poetic form I developed. This takes you step by step showing you the precise construct of this poetic form:

First you create a line like on this naverrette:

“Now you’re mine, and am no longer but your master”

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then you copy paste 4 times:

Now you’re mine, and am no longer but your master
Now you’re mine, and am no longer but your master
Now you’re mine, and am no longer but your master
Now you’re mine, and am no longer but your master

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the next step you change the final part of the first 3 verses:

Now you’re mine, so do not hurry
Now you’re mine, come to live in my dreams
Now you’re mine, give me the gift of thy light
Now you’re mine, and am no longer but your master

notice that each line now is different and the Original line becomes the first verse of the last stanza

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then the first 3 stanzas are free to write without rules:

Now you’re mine, so do not hurry
take your time on my bosom
while the skyline is dawning
and the birds spin out their destiny

Now you’re mine, come to live in my dreams
life brought you to me with certainty
mounted on its invisible fugitive wings
at this Alhambra that I built for you

Now you’re mine, give me the gift of thy light
your hands are not blind to my body
and your lips are not foreign to my taste
I am fire you wear and take you to my heart

Now you’re mine, and am no longer but your master

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Now notice that the last stanza has a singularity. I used the original words I replaced after the repetition to construct the 4th stanza:

first verse, first stanza I used:
Now you’re mine, so do not “hurry”

first verse, second stanza I used:
Now you’re mine, come to live in my “dreams”

first verse, third stanza I used:
Now you’re mine, give me the gift of thy “light”

forth stanza:
Now you’re mine, and am no longer but your master
forever your destiny safe and without “hurry”
“dream” of your dream in the eternity of time
filling up with our “light”the shadows of the Universe…

Notice the words used to change the lines created to make different starts for each stanza are remarked. you must use those words in the following order to make sense and create the last stanza:

The first verse, first stanza word matches with a word in the second verse, fourth stanza

the first verse, second stanza word matches with a word in the third verse, fourth stanza

the first verse, Third stanza word matches with a word in the fourth verse, fourth stanza.

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now the poem read like this:

Now you’re mine, so do not hurry
take your time on my bosom
while the skyline is dawning
and the birds spin out their destiny

Now you’re mine, come to live in my dreams
life brought you to me with certainty
mounted on its invisible fugitive wings
at this Alhambra that I built for you

Now you’re mine, give me the gift of thy light
your hands are not blind to my body
and your lips are not foreign to my taste
I am fire you wear and take you to my heart

Now you’re mine, and am no longer but your master
forever your destiny safe and without hurry
dream of your dream in the eternity of time
filling up with our light the shadows of the Universe…

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the 4th stanza is the major problem to resolve but once you crack it, should finally read like this other poem:

When we are…

When we are eternal, we are airborne
taking flight on my trembling feathers
a faint act of faith that leaped forward
to reach a desired height and then stop

When we are eternal, we are stillness
whispering divine Argos of ice and fire
the innerspring of ardent voices to the wind
beyond the veils of tranquil warm nights

When we are eternal, we are vacuum
absorbed by lucid inequities and mute faces
lost in the emptiness of space untamed
in the absence of Sunlight, airless drowning

When we are eternal, we are timeless
airborne souls, we are not extinguished
within the stillness of immortal darkness
nailed deep into the vacuum of the sky….

Gavriel Navarro© 2012

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The purpose of the form is displayed at the last stanza and I believe this formula opens a channel to the subconscious… Have fun if you decide to try!