Llegó con tres heridas:
la del amor,
la de la muerte,
la de la vida.
Con tres heridas viene:
la de la vida,
la del amor,
la de la muerte.
Con tres heridas yo:
la de la vida,
la de la muerte,
la del amor.
He/she arrived with three wounds:
the one of love,
the one of death,
the one of life.
With three wounds, he/she comes:
the one of life,
the one of love,
the one of death.
With three wounds, myself:
the one of life,
the one of death,
the one of love.
This poem gives us a good example of the use of a definite article, followed by a prepositional complement, like in “la del amor, la de la muerte, la de la vida” (“the one of love, the one of death, the one of life”). These prepositional complements have the role to specify the noun “herida” (wound). Since “herida” is a feminine noun, it agrees in genre with the definite article “la.”
During the poem, we are told about three different kinds of heridas (wounds): “la herida del amor”, “la herida de la muerte” and “la herida de la vida.” Then, we can omit the noun herida (to avoid repeating it), and change it, as in the poem, to: “la del amor”, “la de la muerte”, “la de la vida.”
La herida del amor. (The wound of love) => La del amor (the one of love).
La herida de la muerte. (The wound of death) => La de la muerte (the one of death).
La herida de la vida. (The wound of life) => La de la vida (the one of life).
Miguel Hernández (30 October 1910, Orihuela – 28 March 1942, Alicante, Spain) lived during the Spanish civil war (1936-1939), before the Franco dictatorship. The idea of someone having three wounds in three different moments, makes me think of different stages for different people (he talks about a third person, and himself). However, when the author talks about himself, he mentions the wound of love after (maybe beyond) the wound of death, like suggesting that love goes beyond life and death ;).
¡En español! 