When I feel myself Inca, I render homage
to the Sun and am given the sceptre of his royal power;
when I feel myself Spanish and sing of colonial times,
my verses are like crystal trumpets.
My rich imagination comes from old Moorish stock;
the Andes are of silver, but the lion is of gold;
and I fuse the two races in myself with epic din.
My blood is Spanish and Incaic it's pulsation,
and were I not a poet, I might have been
a white adventurer or an Indian emperor.
