PRETENSIONES ALEJADAS DE LA MEDIOCRIDAD

20-07-2019
WALDEN, ECONOMÍA
VERSOS COMPLEMENTARIOS
LAS PRETENSIONES DE LA MEDIOCRIDAD

Tú presumes demasiado, pobre y necesitado comparsa

Para reclamar un puesto en el firmamento

Porque tu cabaña humilde o tu refugio

Nutre alguna virtud perezosa o pedante

Al gratuito sol o en las sombras de los arroyos

Con raíces y hierbas, donde tu mano derecha

Apartando de la mente las pasiones humanas,

Sobre cuya base florecen virtudes honestas,

Degrada la naturaleza y acalla el sentido

Y como la Gorgona convierte en piedra hombres activos

Nosotros no necesitamos la imbécil compañía

De tu necesitada moderación

O esa estupidez antinatural

Que no conoce ni la alegría ni el dolor; ni tu forzada

Falsamente exaltada fortaleza pasiva

Por encima de la activa. Ese ánimo bajo y abyecto

Que coloca sus asientos en la mediocridad
Se convierte en vuestras serviles mentes; sino que avanzamos
Solo aquellas virtudes que admiten el exceso

Actos valientes, generosos, grandeza real,

Prudencia que todo lo ve, magnanimidad

Que no conoce frontera, y aquella virtud heroica

de la que la antigüedad no dejó nombre,

Sino ejemplos, como Hércules,

Aquiles, Teseo.

Vuelve a tu detestada celda,

Y cuando veas la nueva esfera iluminada,

No intentes sino conocer lo que fueron aquellas riquezas 

T. Carew 

(traducción Guillermo Ruiz)

Notes on the "Complemental Verse" 

by René Pinet (Bahia, Mexico) 

"To some academicians, this must have seemed Emile all over again.

 It was not, of course. At least, it was not Thoreau's intention, as was Rousseau's. Walden was not even Thoreau's life-style when it was published ("I lived there two years and two months. At present I am a sojourner in civilized life again"). As metaphorical as it is ("labor enough to subdue and cultivate a few cubic feet of flesh"), as lacking in compromise as it seems (Thoreau was much compromised in the fight against slavery), much of the discussion in chapter one is in real economic terms.  

I think the inclusion of "The pretensions of poverty" serves a double purpose: first, it refuses debate by letting the blow pass, but acknowledging it -- an act, I think, of great intellectual honesty. Second -- and I think in this he was much less successful -- by warning its readers not to become the target Carew aims at, and the first paragraph caricatures. 

I think the real lesson Thoreau intended is not his life-style; not even his two-year prescription for cure. It is his attitude. And of this, as the Editors of Time remind us, Walt Whitman's portrait is the best: "Thoreau's lawlessness -- his dissent -- his going his own absolute road let hell blaze all it chooses". This, I think, has been a distinguishing mark of the American character, ever present in its folklore, its politics, its classical and popular art, even in what Americans admire of other cultures -- just watch, if not, Hallmark's production of Merlin."