Es el más rico quien más usa la naturaleza como materia
prima de tropos y símbolos con los que describir su vida. Si estas puertas de
un sauce dorado me afectan, corresponden a la belleza y promesa de alguna
experiencia en la que me estoy adentrando. Si estoy inundado con vida y rico en
experiencia de la que no encuentro expresión, entonces la naturaleza será mi
lenguaje lleno de poesía-toda la naturaleza fabulará y cada fenómeno natural
será un mito. El hombre de ciencia que no está buscando expresión sino para un
hecho meramente, estudia la naturaleza como una lengua muerta. Rezo por tal
experiencia interior que hará significativa la naturaleza.
HDT
Diario 10 de mayo de 1853
(Traducción Guillermo Ruiz)
At sundown
when a day’s words
have gathered at the feet of the trees
lining up in silence
to enter the long corridors
of the roots into which they
pass one by one thinking
that they remember the place
as they feel themselves climbing
away from their only sound
while they are being forgotten
by their bright circumstances
they rise through all of the rings
listening again
afterward as they
listened once and they come
to where the leaves used to live
during their lives but have gone now
and they too take the next step
beyond the reach of meaning
have gathered at the feet of the trees
lining up in silence
to enter the long corridors
of the roots into which they
pass one by one thinking
that they remember the place
as they feel themselves climbing
away from their only sound
while they are being forgotten
by their bright circumstances
they rise through all of the rings
listening again
afterward as they
listened once and they come
to where the leaves used to live
during their lives but have gone now
and they too take the next step
beyond the reach of meaning
— W.S.
Merwin, from Present
Company
