Prometíamos hai unhas semanas traer a este blog a obra de T.S. Eliot, escritor estadounidense que obtivo a nacionalidade británica aos 39 anos. O motivo da promesa non era outro que a súa aparición na obra de Gioconda Belli. A obra de T. S. Eliot citada por Belli e presentada nesta anotación é o seu célebre Four Quartets. Esta obra está composta por catro poemas longos divididos en cinco seccións cada un. Cada poema leva por título un topónimo e arranca con unha descrición mais ou menos paisaxística, mais a temática común dos poemas é o tempo, desde diversos puntos de vista, e está ligado en cada poema a un dos catro elementos da antigüidade clásica (aire, terra, auga e lume). O fragmento que presentamos pertence á sección V do segundo poema: East Coker, e remata cos versos citados por Belli.
Because one has only learnt to get the better of words
For the thing one no longer has to say, or the way in which
One is no longer disposed to say it. And so each venture
Is a new beginning, a raid on the inarticulate
With shabby equipment always deteriorating
In the general mess of imprecision of feeling,
Undisciplined squads of emotion. And what is there to conquer
By strength and submission, has already been discovered
Once or twice, or several times, by men whom one cannot hope
To emulate –but there is no competition–
There is only the fight to recover what has been lost
And found and lost again and again: and now, under conditions
That seems unpropitious. But perhaps neither gain nor loss.
For us there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.
Because one has only learnt to get the better of words
For the thing one no longer has to say, or the way in which
One is no longer disposed to say it. And so each venture
Is a new beginning, a raid on the inarticulate
With shabby equipment always deteriorating
In the general mess of imprecision of feeling,
Undisciplined squads of emotion. And what is there to conquer
By strength and submission, has already been discovered
Once or twice, or several times, by men whom one cannot hope
To emulate –but there is no competition–
There is only the fight to recover what has been lost
And found and lost again and again: and now, under conditions
That seems unpropitious. But perhaps neither gain nor loss.
For us there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.
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