SHINE, PERISHING REPUBLIC (ROBINSON JEFFERS)

 

 

While this America settles in the mould of its vulgarity, heavily thickening
to empire
And protest, only a bubble in the molten mass, pops and sighs out, and the
mass hardens,
I sadly smiling remember that the flower fades to make fruit, the fruit rots
to make earth.
Out of the mother; and through the spring exultances, ripeness and deca-
dence; and home to the mother.

You making haste haste on decay: not blameworthy; life is good, be it stub-
bornly long or suddenly
A mortal splendor: meteors are not needed less than mountains:
shine, perishing republic.
But for my children, I would have them keep their distance from the thick-
ening center; corruption
Never has been compulsory, when the cities lie at the monster's feet there
are left the mountains.
And boys, be in nothing so moderate as in love of man, a clever servant,
insufferable master.
There is the trap that catches noblest spirits, that caught- they say-
God, when he walked on earth. 

 

‘Shine, Perishing Republic’ was first published in Roan Stallion, Tamar and Other Poems in 1925. The poem explores themes of nature, and humanity’s relationship with its processes, as well as change and transformation. 

Throughout ‘Shine, Perishing Republic,’ the speaker is alluding to the wider history of this kind of corruption. It is not just America that has experienced this. Widespread corruption as a country grows and becomes more powerful is unavoidable. A reader can look to ancient empires as examples of this cycle.

The poem depicts America in the first lines as rotting fruit. It was a flower, but now it’s filled to the brim with corrupt people and intentions. It is am empire that is doomed to rot away as others have before it. The speaker mourns this fact, but he realizes that its all part of a natural cycle of life, death, and a return to mother earth. In the last lines, he addresses his children, telling them not to get too attached to humankind or they’ll follow in the footsteps of Christ.

 https://poemanalysis.com/robinson-jeffers/shine-perishing-republic/

BRILLA LA REPÚBLICA QUE PERECE

Mientras esta América se asienta en el molde de su vulgaridad, pesadamente expandiéndose 

en imperio

Y la protesta, solo una burbuja en la masa fundida, se rompe y jadea, y la

masa se endurece,

Yo sonrío sádicamente recordando que la flor muere para hacer el fruto, y el fruto se pudre

para hacer la tierra

De la madre, y a través de los brotes exultantes, la madurez y la decadencia;

Y una casa para la madre

Si te apresuras te apresuras en la decadencia: no culpable; la vida es buena, tanto si es testarudamente larga como si es repentinamente

Un esplendor mortal: los meteoros no son menos necesarios que las montañas:

Brilla la república que perece

Pero para mis hijos, preferiría que guardaran su distancia del centro que se engrosa; la corrupción

nunca ha sido obligatoria, cuando las ciudades mienten a los pies del monstruo,

quedan las montañas

E hijos, no ser en nada tan moderados como en el amor del hombre, un claro sirviente e insufrible señor

Existe la trampa que atrapa los espíritus más nobles, que atrapó- dicen- a Dios, cuando él caminó sobre la tierra

Robinson Jeffers (Traducción Guillermo Ruiz)