TAN CIEGOS QUE NO PUEDEN VER LO SERENO

Tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito.

(Virgilio, Eneida VI,95)

No cedas ante el mal, ve a su encuentro valerosamente.

Mis amigos, mis nobles amigos, sabed
que en mis horas de vigilia pienso en vosotros
-siempre en el único bando de dios, el libre y no comprometido-

HDT

(Traducción Guillermo Ruiz)

Diario 13 de Marzo de 1853

Debes ganar tu vida amándola. Ser mantenido por la caridad de los amigos o por una pensión del gobierno es ir a la casa de los pobres. Heredar propiedades no es ser nacido, sino más bien nacer muerto.

HDT

POLYCING THE YARD

Palabras y obras perdidas, rápidamente una carga,
qué tedioso habrían encontrado tener que
recoger lo que ellas dejaron hace mucho.

Cuantas más memorias perdidas y enterradas albergan,
en un montón subsubsubterráneo,
más regresarán para revivirlas todas.

Se encuentran a sí mismas regresando al conocimiento
del retorno, cruelmente tratando de exponer-
recogiendo lo que ellas dejaron hace tanto.

El significado de su tarea, cuando exploran
alrededor todo el territorio común,
regresará para revivirlas más.

Tanto por su común desvalimiento,
como por sus bastante inadecuadas conclusiones,
recogiendo lo que ellas dejaron hace ya demasiado:
que regresará para revivirlas más a todas.

JHOLLANDER

(Traducción Guillermo Ruiz)

Picking up what they'd dropped not long before,

They gain a new acquaintance with the ground

That will return to haunt them all the more.

Lost words and deeds, quickly become a bore,

Make for how tedious they will have found

Picking up what they'd dropped so long before.

The more lost buried memories they store

Up in a subsubsubterranean mound

(Those will return to haunt them all), the more

They find themselves returning to the lore

Of returning, sadly trying to expound

--Picking up what they'd dropped so long before--

The meaning of their task, as they explore

The lowly territory all around.

This will return to haunt them--all the more

For its low hopelessness as well as for

All their conclusions being quite unsound.

Picking up what they'd dropped too long before:

That will return to haunt them all the more.

John Hollander


http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15561

John Hollander es "Connecticut Poet Laureate":

The honorary position of State Poet Laureate was established in 1985 by the Connecticut Legislature. As the state’s representative poet, the Poet Laureate functions as an advocate for poetry.

" I think that he must be the man of the most faith of any alive. His words and attitude always suppose a better state of things than other men are acquainted with, and he will be the last man to be disappointed as the ages revolve. He has no venture in the present. But though comparatively disregarded now, when his day comes, laws unsuspected by most will take effect, and masters of families and rulers will come to him for advice."

"How blind that cannot see serenity!"

(HDT, Walden, chapter 14)

SERENIDAD SOBRE UNA OLA DE JEFF ROWLEY

JEFF ROWLEY