Blog Action Day 2010 deals with the issue of water. Water, that wonderful but elusive element, which says so many things to each and every one of us. Below we offer our humble contribution to the day’s thoughts and reflections, with two poems talking about water, one in English and one in Catalan.
The Old Men Admiring Themselves In The Water
I heard the old, old men say,
'Everything alters,
And one by one we drop away.'
They had hands like claws, and their knees
Were twisted like the old thorn-trees
By the waters.
I heard the old, old men say,
'All that's beautiful drifts away
Like the waters.
WB Yeats
WB Yeats
Cançó de Pluja
No sents, cor meu, quina pluja més fina?
Dorm, que la pluja ja vetlla el teu son…
Hi ha dues perles a la teranyina,
quina conversa la pluja i la font!
No sents, cor meu, quina pluja més fina?
No sents, cor meu, quin plorar i quin cantar?
Canten les gotes damunt la teulada,
ploren les gotes damunt del replà…
Gotes de pluja, gardènia que es bada…
No sents, cor meu, quin plorar i quin cantar?
¿No sents, cor meu, quina pau més divina,
amb la música dels núvols desfets?
Pluja de nit, delicada veïna,
dentetes d’aigua en els vidres quiets…
No sents, cor meu, quina pau més divina?
¿No sents, cor meu, que la pena se’n va,
dintre aquest plor de la pluja nocturna,
i les estrelles somriuen enllà?
Enllà somriu un mantell tot espurna…
No sents, cor meu, que la pena se’n va?
No sents, cor meu, quina pluja més fina?
No sents, cor meu, quin plorar i quin cantar?
No sents, cor meu, quina pau més divina?
No sents, cor meu, que la pena se’n va?
No sents, cor meu, quina pluja més fina?
Josep Maria de Sagarra
Thank you for sharing the poems, Brian.
ResponEliminaI love the imagery of this poem about facing old age and loss and like most of WB Yeats' poems it still has the same immediacy and freshness that it must have had when it was written at the turn of the 20th century.
'The Rain Song'is equally beautiful and appears to be almost balladic - does it have a musical setting? The word I did not understand in that context was 'bada' - what is that?
Glad you liked them.
ResponEliminaThe line "...gardènia que es bada…", refers, I think to the flower being forced open by the rain drops - "badar" is normally used to describe walls, solid things, splitting open, often due to natural forces.
Musical - I agree, but I'll have to check that out with Silvia ---- we'll get back!