POETS MAY BE BORN AND SING IN OUR DAY, IN THE PRESIDENCY OF DONALD J. TRUMP

Though we know well,

“That’t is not in the power of kings [or presidents] to raise
A spirit for verse that is not born thereto,
Nor are they born in every prince’s days”;

yet spite of all they sang in praise of their “Eliza’s reign,” we have evidence that poets may be born and sing in our day, in the presidency of James K. Polk,

“And that the utmost powers of English rhyme,”
Were not “within her peaceful reign confined.”

The prophecy of the poet Daniel is already how much more than fulfilled!

“And who in time knows whither we may vent
The treasure of our tongue? To what strange shores
This gain of our best glory shall be sent,
T’ enrich unknowing nations with our stores?
What worlds in th’ yet unformed occident,
May come refined with the accents that are ours.

(Henry David Thoreau, "A week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers", Sunday)

Aunque sabemos bien,

“Que no está en el poder de los reyes [o presidentes] elevar

Un espíritu poético que no haya nacido tal,

Y que los poetas no nacen en cada uno de los días del príncipe”,

Y a pesar de todo lo que ellos cantaron en alabanza del “reinado Eliza”, tenemos pruebas de que los poetas pueden nacer y declamar en nuestro día, en la presidencia de James K. Polk,

“Y que los mayores poderes de la rima inglesa”

No fueron “confinados a su pacífico reinado”

¡La profecía del poeta Daniel ha sido ya mucho más que cumplida!.

“¿Y quién sabe a tiempo si podremos desatar

El tesoro de nuestra lengua? ¿A qué playas extrañas

Esta victoria de nuestra mejor gloria será enviada,

Para enriquecer naciones desconocidas con nuestros almacenes?

Que mundos todavía en el occidente informe

Pueden ser refinados con los acentos que son los nuestros"

Henry David Thoreau

(Fragmento de "A week on the Concord and Merrimack rivers", Sunday)

Traducción de Guillermo Ruiz

(Primera vez aquí el 21 de marzo de 2009 y el 28 de marzo de 2008)

No estoy hablando, tan solo caminando

Camino adelante, alrededor de una curva

Corazón que arde y todavía desea

En el ultimo lugar remoto en el fin del mundo

 

Bob Dylan ("Ain't talking", del album "Modern Times", Columbia 2006)

 

(Traducción de Guillermo Ruiz)

They killed him once and they killed him twice

Killed him like a human sacrifice

The day that they killed him, someone said to me, "Son

the age of the Antichrist has just only begun"

Air Force One comin' in through the gate

Johnson sworn in at 2:38

Let me know when you decide to throw in the towel

It is what it is, and it's murder most foul

(...)

Play "Marching Through Georgia" and "Dumbarton's Drums"

Play darkness and death will come when it comes

Play "Love Me or leave Me" by the Great Bud Powell

Play "The Blood-Stained Banner, Play "Murder Most Foul"

Bob Dylan, (Roough and Rowdy ways, Murder Most Foul, Columbia 2020)

Cuadro "Cow's skull:Red, White and Blue"

Georgia O'Keeffe (American, 1887–1986)

Cow's Skull: Red, White, and Blue, 1931

Oil on canvas; H. 39-7/8, W. 35-7/8 in. (101.3 x 91.1 cm)

Alfred Stieglitz Collection, 1952 (52.203)

"Cow's Skull: Red, White, and Blue" is masterful, both as an eloquent abstraction of form and line and as a richly symbolic image that raises issues of nationalism and religion. The compositional arrangement is starkly simple. The skull, precisely modeled and strictly frontal in its placement, becomes an image of great mystical power, like a sacred relic. The religious connotation is reinforced by the cross configuration of the extended horns and vertical support (probably the tree or easel upon which the skull was hung).

 

"Cow's Skull: Red, White, and Blue" is symbolic of America as O'Keeffe saw it, represented by the New Mexico desert and its relics; and almost as a joke, she painted the canvas with the three colors of the American flag.