El cielo está dentro de mí [English translation]

High up in the mountains

I stopped to rest.

I felt myself going away,

but I didn't move from where I was.

My eyes got lost

in the midst of such immensity.

And I forgot about myself,

looking, looking out so much.

Suddenly, the voice of

loneliness asked me

If I was searching for heaven 1 ,

and I answered, "Perhaps."

Heaven is within oneself,

and hell is too.

The soul writes its own books

but nobody reads them.

Sometimes one walks

between darkness 2 and light;

A smile upon one's face,

a cross inside one's heart.

Look for heaven inside yourself,

for you will find it therein.

But finding it is not easy,

since the struggle is great.

Along solitary paths,

I began to walk.

I was seeking naught without

but within, perhaps.

1. Though a clear distinction of meaning(s) exists in Spanish , both "heaven" and "sky" are translated into Spanish as cielo , the common word for both. In this poem (song) the speaker is up in the mountains. The separate definitions or meanings of cielo "meet." 2. Literally, shadow(s).

• Artist:Atahualpa Yupanqui