Fragmentos del "Testamento de Heiligenstädt"

• (Ludwig van Beethoven: Heiligendstädter Testament, 1802)

"Desde mi niñez, mi corazón y mi mente se han visto inclinados a los tiernos sentimientos de la bondad, aún entonces estaba ya ansioso por conquistar grandes empresas, pero reflexionando ahora, que desde hace seis años soy un caso perdido, agravado por médicos insensatos, engañado año tras año con vanas esperanzas de mejora, finalmente me veo obligado a enfrentarme con la posibilidad de una enfermedad duradera (cuya cura tomará años, o quizá, sea imposible)."

"Un poco más y hubiese puesto fin a mi vida. Sólo el arte me ha mantenido; parecía imposible abandonar el mundo antes de haber producido lo que siento que llevo dentro..., y así, he soportado esta mísera existencia."

Der Originaltext ist hier: http://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Heiligenstädter_Testament

[Aún me falta traducir algunos otros fragmentos... :-)]

sad or angry?

I always thought that sadness and anger
were two completely different emotions,
and when I was younger I got mad all the time
when people around me couldn't tell if I was sad or angry...
Just at this exact moment in my life,
I feel that sadness and anger
are like two sides of the same coin,
the only difference is
the amount of energy you have in your soul,
the amount of blood your heart can pump,
the amount of faith you still have in your spirit,
the amount of clarity you have in your thoughts,
the amount of pain you can resist...

Mood: meh... don't know, don't care

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

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))

Long Day

¡Qué día! Tener que lidiar con gente que o no quiere hacer su trabajo y piensa que es tu obligación que tú se lo hagas, o lo hace mal, a medias o con pésima actitud; además de tener que lidiar con normas absurdas que sólo existen para permitir que los "servidores" públicos puedan ganarse un sueldo haciendo el mínimo esfuerzo...

"¿Necesidades del cliente/usuario? ¡Por favor! Si sólo son la razón de ser de mi empleo, ¿crees que por eso me va a a importar cumplir con mis responsabilidades?"

"¿Deber ético? Jajaja. No estoy familiarizado con el término..."

En una palabra: ineptitud (sea por actitud negativa, por la corrupción del "poder" -o lo que la gente mezquina cree que es poder- o simple arrogancia -nacida de la ignorancia y de la ambición-.

Al menos todo parece ir mejor para mi madre y para su salud. 

5

Y AHORA... OTRA DE NUESTRAS... }}

{{{HISTORIAS DE TERROR}}}

 

 

[Episodio 5: Beachy Head, East Sussex]

(En el aeropuerto, salidas internacionales.)

Yo: Un boleto hacia Londres, por favor.
Persona con gafete detrás del mostrador: ¿Ida y vuelta?
Yo: Sólo ida.
PcGddM: ¡Oh! ¿Beca de estudios? ¿Empleo?
Yo: [silencio, sonrisa estúpida en los labios mientras pienso: "oh, no tiene ni idea..."]

Dis-Isolation

 

A man wrote a note:

"If one person smiles at me, I won’t kill myself."

The note was found after he had plunged to his death.--

 

To think that sometimes it is so hard to smile...

How many desperate people have I passed by
that thought I was angry when actually I was about to cry?

To think that sometimes I need others,
to think we are isolated and we are not,
at the same disjointed,
at the same time connected.

To think I've been taught if I need anything
I should be ashamed of my most natural needs.

Freedom, freedom of thought, freedom of feeling.
We are not born with it, we earn it.
Freedom of action, freedom of making decisions.
We’re told to create it, and misused, we waste it.

To think I will die, to think we all will,
but who deserves to die in desperation?

Why do we leave people live in it?

Uneasy

 

I have taken good care of my pains
'cause they are all I have;
sometimes I can't take care of myself.

Between the mountains of love and hate
lies the valley of deception,
and once again I’ve dwelled on it,
treading paths of misunderstanding.

flyleaves

I dreamed I started writing songs again
and some of those were about you, me,
and my broken heart still thudding
whenever I think of you;
and when you listen to my voice you'd hear
it goes on beating even harder 'till it dies.

Shunned

 

--been writing a lot!, well, not “a lot”, but at all…--

I'm such a bastard:
shunned you out and now been shunned.
Years and years passed
and I always knew I was haunted
by the unbalance I'd created,
and chaos... pure?
and chaos... perfect?
and love... or the absence of it?

I'm such a bastard and I wish I could turn back time,
and sometimes I think things could not have been otherwise,
and others I believe I could have made you mine without hurting.
I should have made you mine doubtlessly, and I'm sure
you were half-mine already and you will always be... because
I'll always be more than half-yours in this life and the next.

I'm such a bastard
cause those halves mean nothing, a-ny-thing!
I'm such a bastard
cause I never thought of how idiotic execution was
of my decision right, 'til someone played
the same trick on me...

The balance of the universe restored I noticed
how fucked up my mind really was and scared.
And I think of you
when I walk through the city, up and down, when alone, and
in company seems my memory is just gathering facts
to spit on my face when most weak...

Such a bastard, I know.
Did you ever suspect when you were
touching my hair that morning in town,
that I was such a bastard?

I have so many things to write, I feel like shooting myself, but, well, I don’t have a gun, so that’s out of the question. This thingy was oficially closed but then I guess I’m asphyxiating, don’t know what to do with these things I wanna shout while punching anything (a tree, a wall, whatever). Everything is going wrong, oh, so wrong, and I think I‘m going slowly insane, I’m gonna lose it, sure… but yesterday morning I started composing some lines in my head, (the last time that happened was like four years ago or so)

 

I said it hurt a little,
actually it hurts a lot.
Such pain I had forgotten,
numbing, paralyzing, cold.
'Tis the toll of absence.

Like a child alone at home,
when it begins to rain,
the darkness lurking outside
swallows heart and faith,
I fear I'll shed many a tear
yearning for our wanderings,
diluted in sleep, diluted in dreams.

And in the streets we walk'd together
(it seems we canvassed the whole city)
I like to fancy you're still here,
while the memories descending
destroy the hope they themselves brought.

Nobody would believe
such pain I do live in.
I told you it hurt a little,
actually it aches my blood.
Such pain could make me hate you,
I hope it does it soon.

Almost my birthday. Went to the movies today, I mean, yesterday. Also thinking about erasing this thingy. I don't feel like writing anymore, not even my thoughts, not even my ideas, would be better they just diluted in time. Little by little until they wither away. I will too.

Been walking in front of cars and buses just for the fun of it, feels so nice just to watch the vehicles moving towards me, keep fantasizing one would hit me. What would it feel like? Maybe just looking for new experiences. I don't know...

10 years ago I finished Middle School. What the hell with this obsession…??? Memories and such…

(Watched TASM and, being a romance, it got me thinking, about the need of breaking out of individuality, at least as that concept is understood in this capitalist world... and the moving towards paternalism, help, weakness, social union... don't know... suddenly I feel just idiotic thinking about those things, about analyzing popcult products, no doubt my former professors would laugh at me... )

En attendant…

 

“Thou art not false, but thou art fickle,
To those thyself so fondly sought,
Too well thou lov'st -too soon thou leavest...”
(George Gordon, Lord Byron)

And as far as I'm concerned, since you are fickle, you might as well be false, I wish you were, so it would be easier to shut you off my life... feels so strange not seeing you...

Horas de Ocio

(12 líneas escritas por Lord Byron, traducidas por mí, para un querido amigo que por el momento -y mucho que temo que tal vez para siempre- se encuentra ausente. Espero que las lea y las disfrute ;-), aunque sé que no es precisamente muy benévolo con las mentiras de la poesía... haha)

En ti, ingenuamente esperaba encontrar
un amigo de quien sólo la muerte me separaría,
pero la envidia con su abrazo de maldad
te ha arrancado para siempre de mi vida.

Es verdad, te ha arrebatado de mi pecho,
pero en mi corazón conservas tu lugar;
Ahí, justo ahí, tu imagen se atesorará,
hasta que el corazón ya no lata más.

Y cuando la muerte devuelva a sus muertos,
cuando al polvo se le dé vida otra vez,
mi cabeza recostaré en tu querido pecho,
pues, ¡sin ti! ¿donde quedaría mi Cielo?

There's so many things I can't understand

 

like, why the hell do I miss you so much?
I wish I'd pick up the phone and hear your voice,
I've been thinking about you non-stop
for the last two months...

and, why I can't prefer another "grafted" tongue
if it expresses my thought so well,
why should I be a slave to an accident,
this fucked up coincidence?

Ich glaube ich muss entscheiden.
Entscheide dich!!

or perhaps, it's just that my dreams are crawling into
my reality, giving me headache, making me weak.
I see these open books before my eyes,
the words I cannot read and I believe...

I should stop imagining I can figure you out,
and accept you'll probably end up getting married
to a girl your mother would approve and your father
would dream about sleeping with.

'cause I, never understood why I felt
your father was such a kind man, unlike your mother,
that goddamned bitch, who hated me, by the way.

I wish I could drop by your place just to see her stupid face
disfigured when she sees me again.
I would take your hand, this time, I wouldn't hide,
I wouldn't hide from anyone, not from myself at least,
my feelings, this open book you see before your eyes,
these words you’re reading, don’t you believe...

You should stop doubting and reach out for me?

for example, why the hell did we hurt each other so much,
that we can't even look into each other's eye,
I feel so strange thinking about you, picturing you
lying down on my bed, reading me poetry,
tearing off each other’s clothes and finally…

There are no more secret codes for writing about us.

Ch. I

Abordo del subterráneo metropolitano o a través de los pasillos cubiertos de pancartas socialistas en la universidad no puedo evitar pensar con tristeza, suspicacia y sardónica ironía que Freire tenía razón. Y que hay incluso que llevar sus observaciones y postulados teóricos más lejos, o al menos lo que veo me obliga a hacerlo. No sólo los sectarios o dominadores y la relación vertical que establecían con los oprimidos eran necrófilos, todos lo éramos. Todos lo somos. Nadie ama el cambio, al contrario, lo suplican y lo odian al mismo tiempo. Rezan un rato y luego despotrican que tarda demasiado en suceder y no trabajan para traerlo, anhelando entre murmullos que jamás llegue. Cómo amamos "lo constante", lo inmutable, lo eterno, ese Absoluto inalcanzable que nos condena a odiar el hoy, recordar el ayer con nostalgia y ser incapaces de siquiera imaginar un futuro cualquiera.

Los encabezados me dicen que estamos todos enamorados de la muerte, macabra y explícita, de la muerte "que todo lo iguala", y que convierte nuestra transitoriedad imperfecta en un algo perenne y vaporoso que permanece. ¿Dónde? Eso es lo de menos. Y a mi garganta llega un asco intenso cuando recuerdo escenas de muerte y destrucción mientras mastico trozos de cadáveres durante la comida; o mientras escribo alguna falsedad en los ensayos de la escuela, escondiendo la verdad: no hay respuestas y aún si las hubiera a nadie le importaría. ¿Por qué estamos tan infatuados creyendo que sabemos hacer las preguntas correctas?

Incluso yo, que puedo racionalizar e intelectualizar cualquier cosa, sin importar cuán trivial o cuán profunda, padezco la parálisis espiritual de la modernidad y la necrofilia idealizadora de la postmodernidad. Hay los que se arrastran descalzos por un día más y yo me sorprendo de que los autos conducidos por quienes son más jóvenes que yo pasen raudos a mi lado y ni siquiera me despeinen. Yo también estoy enamorada de la muerte, sobretodo de la mía, que no dejo de imaginar, planear, esperar, soñar. La versión más pervertida del amor propio y la necrofilia "imperante de nuestros tiempos".

If you were to write to me tonight
doubt not that I would answer,
Yes, I would reply right away.
Sure, I say it cause I know
that you won't write tonight.

My friends have left me now,
and all my house is quiet.
The winds are breathing low,
and the stars are shining bright.
The moon has now been up
for more than I can care,
and if I could look at you
no doubt I would feel weak.

I remember what I've read,
and what I made you read. It's true,
tonight melancholy has trapped me.
And I took up the book
that once I talked about,
it's entwined hopelessly now
to everything you are.

So if you had written to me tonight,
if you would have written to me last night,
doubt now I would have answered,
but maybe something in my throat
would break and leave me speechless.
Thanks whatever gods may be
that you won't write tonight,
and I pray to all my dreams
that you don't write tomorrow.

Liquid Persuasion

 

A text I wrote in 2004 (with a shocking title: Immolation Project, I like the new title better) and just re-read last night. Strange, it still feels so honest and energetic, I do love this poem, lives so close to my heart. Even if I wrote it almost eight years ago is accurate in expressing what I feel.

 

I. Morning At School

Here's the song my fellows sing:
"it's very undesirable to be
eager for something deep,
something but just poetic".
Conceited thing comprising reality,
that part of life taking you away
from a painful unreal death.
I do not care what the world says
to set consciences free.
I do not care.
My mind won't take it.

 

II. That Afternoon Itself

Only empty words remain:
"something deep, but just poetic".
My recklessness could not be drank
like their cup of health.
In silence, the ground walks
its southern way, when north is lost.
Water dissolves the quietness
in a foreign whisper synthetized.

 

III. Saturday, Very Early Morning

My liquid red persuasion goes outside in visit,
my room's walls sell the tickets to a perfect ideal world.
It relaxes me while kissing my lips,
it captivates my foolish affection,
and overflows me with despair.
It does make me lose myself
inside this dark eagerness for time.
It brings a painful,
an almost idle passion beating fast.

I do bruise ideals, perfection,
and then become what I can’t deny,
time turning me into what I can't hide.
Both these boughs are bleeding
slashed by moon's burning dagger.
This new breath blurs the windows...
(Tomorrow, when they come in,
they better go find someone
who could clean the red out of the pane.)

 

IV. Monday Seen Through Dreams

Dust hangs around the fog
inside this house built
like a graveyard of life
between two naked trees.

Looks rain from everywhere,
watching summers and repeated beats.
Heaven promises.

Horizon, my fearless friend,
goes cheating rocks sharp and  cold,
and finds a sincere new reason
to justify my deep passion,
this sick admiration
for fighting weathervanes
shaking against the wind.

Unrequited Love and the Evolutive Response

De acuerdo con las investigaciones neurológicas y los scannings al cerebro, las áreas cerebrales que se activan a causa de un amor no correspondido son las mismas que están involucradas en las sensaciones de dolor e incomodidad corporales, lo que, en otras palabras significa que esa clase de sentimientos sí producen efectos reales y que el desánimo y las penas relacionadas con esas absurdas pero verdaderas emociones no son un invento más del enamorado.

Sin embargo, si tomamos en cuenta que el dolor tiene como objetivo el ponernos sobre aviso de algún peligro para que nos alejemos de él y sobrevivamos, debo pensar que si la desesperación provocada por los amores no correspondidos se relaciona con el dolor, aquella existe para mandarnos el aviso de alejarnos de esas pesarosas situaciones.

No obstante, ya que las acciones tienen un elemento de "voluntad" y "libre albedrío" por desgracia no siempre es posible llevar a cabo lo que debe hacerse. Concluyo entonces que la irresponsable "indulgencia" que tenemos para con nuestros sentimientos no es una conquista evolutiva sino un capricho de la conciencia...

 

Addendum:

Updates: It seems I speak English at Level C1 of The European Council (which is kind of “Advanced”) at least according to Cambridge ESOL standards… Wow… these 12 years of study have paid off :-)

Since there’s no help

 

Pues que no hay remedio, ven, besémonos y separémonos.
No, ya he terminado, ya no obtendrás nada de mí.
Y estoy feliz, sí, feliz de todo corazón
porque puedo así, tan fácilmente, liberarme.
Estrechemos nuestras manos, cancelemos nuestros votos,
y cuando nos veamos alguna otra vez,
que no se vea en nuestras miradas
que aún guardamos ni una pizca del amor pasado.

(Primeras líneas del Soneto LXI de Drayton, translation mine)

Fácil y rápido. ¿No? Ojalá..

 

Since there's no help, come, let us kiss and part,
Nay, I have done, you get no more of me,
And I am glad, yea, glad with all my heart,
That thus so cleanly I myself can free.
Shake hands for ever, cancel all our vows,
And when we meet at any time again
Be it not seen in either of our brows
That we one jot of former love retain.

(after this, the sonnet ruins… haha)

(Excerpt from Drayton's Sonnet LXI)