¿Eres tú la nueva persona que se acerca a mí?

(by Walt Whitman. Leaves of Grass, 1900)

¿Eres tú la nueva persona que se acerca a mí?
Para empezar, te lo advierto: seguramente
soy por completo diferente de quien tú supones.
¿Supones que me encontrarás a tu gusto?
¿Crees que será fácil hacerme tu amante?
¿Crees que mi amistad te traerá satisfacción pura?*
¿Crees que soy confiable y fiel?
¿No ves más allá de esta fachada,
de esta suave y tolerante actitud mía?
¿Te supones avanzando seguramente hacia
un hombre de verdad heroico?
¿No has pensado, soñador, que todo bien podría
ser sólo maya, ilusión?°

(Translation mine)

original here

*Es fantástica la palabra que Whitman utiliza en el verso 6 para calificar a la satisfacción que la voz poética supone en su interlocutor: "unalloy'd". Este término como tal no existe, es una construcción derivada del sustantivo "alloy", término utilizado en metalúrgica (aquí aparece, de forma casi sorpresiva, el espíritu blue-collar de Whitman ) para referirse a una "aleación o mezcla de metales". Más ampliamente, podríamos decir algo "no puro". Añadiendo el prefijo "un-", tenemos "no algo no puro", o sea, puro. En realidad sigo buscando una palabra en español que transmita mejor la connotación de "unalloy'd".

°"Maya" o "Mayá", término en sánscrito, que aparece en múltiples ocasiones en la literatura veda y budista. Se refiere a un "engaño de la mente".

Too much Black Bile

was reading a description of the Melancholic Medieval Personality Type and took some ideas…

the ways of love are stranger
than the strangest ways of God
I cannot dwell in your eyes
and I don't belong here below
earthly delights get me drunk
I just fall down, get no pleasure
earthly delights get me drunk
I ain't free from this pressure

were your lovers strong, vivacious?
did you feel your life quickening?
it affords me real relief
to confide my soul to you
but I get tired all the time
like a wound when too much blood
wants to get out of the heart
awkwardly I keep quiet always
cause I can't stop my mind

a strange longing for something
that's beyond our mortal lives
takes me away from your voice
I'm distracted by my thoughts

if only you knew that all I think about
is ways in which I could show this pain to you
tell me that you want to listen
lie to me if you must
just tell me that you're going to listen
and I swear I will not talk
words won't show myself to you

the ways of love are like those of God's
they are not the ways of human hearts

Aleatorio

So, I've been thinking a lot about someone I shouldn’t be thinking about, but I can’t help it, heading for more pain, I know… but that’s just me, right? Fallling in love with people I shouldn’t fall in love with… It’s almost self-sabotage…

Dime algo aleatorio sobre ti, dímelo bajito
Casi como si no quisieras oírtelo decir.
Dime algo que creas no revela nada sobre ti,
Y dímelo al oído, tal si alguien más pudiese oír.

Llévame en tus labios como esa canción
de infancia que recuerdas hasta hoy
Cada vez que sientas tristeza o dolor,
Que el peso del día a día parezca el hoy.

Y paséate por mis venas en tu soledad
moviéndote en sus calles desoladas.
Tu sonrisa me atormenta como la verdad
que nadie encuentra y nadie deja de buscar.

Bien podría morir en tu indecisión
Si murieses tú en mi desilusión.
Y que el tiempo destruya mis palabras...

In the lover’s ear alone

 

Carry me in your lips just like your favorite song
Everytime you are tired or you are feeling torn
'Cause your smile torments like some spell unnkown
Walk me like the streets you walk whenever you're alone
And never let me go

Strange fits of passion have I known
Strange fits of madness and of love
Strange fits of passion have I known
That you were dead, that I can't wait
That I would love you just the same

I'll tell you all those things I thought
I would never share
I'll tell you all those things I thought
I'd have to forget
I'll tell you all those things I thought
Would inflict me pain
And I guess then you'd share the same

(Working at the moment in this song))

Childlike, Childish or simply Immature?

 

"To advertising writers, connotation is a matter of life or death. There isn’t an ad agency in the world that would hire a copywriter who couldn’t tell the difference between “childlike” and “childish”—two words with the same denotation. The difference—connotatively—is huge. “Childlike” implies innocence and naturalness; childlike people are free of cynicism and corruption; in a world marred by vice and vanity and villainy, they’ve managed to remain guileless and trusting. They’re often thought of as “saints.” “Childish” people are something else: they’re arrested adolescents at best, and bigmouthed brats at worst; they make juvenile demands, they throw tantrums, and they know only one pronoun: “me.” Nobody has ever mistaken a childish man or woman for a saint. Two words: one denotation...vastly different connotations."

(Found somewhere online, with no proper attribution)

I guess I’m more of a “bigmouted brat” and some people would even say I’m an “arrested adolescent”, than “free of cynicism and corruption”. Definitely I ain’t trusting… But I know more pronouns other than “me”. (I guess, I mean… oh, wait… Fuck! –That was not a tantrum, and I don’t make juvenile demands, just can someone explain… oh, wait…-)

Hahaha…. XD