sábado, 11 de junio de 2016

El poema original en inglés

Me permito presentar el poema de Billy Collins en su idioma original, a petición de mi amigo José Luis Domínguez. El lector podrá comparar el texto original con mi intento de traducción y, libremente, comentar o criticar.


Night Letter to the Reader

I get up from the tangled bed and go outside,
a bird leaving its nest,
a snail taking a holiday from his shell,

but only to stand on the lawn,
an ordinary insomniac
amid the growth systems of garden and woods.

If I were younger, I might be thinking
about something I heard at a party,
about an unusual car,

or the press of Saturday night,
but as it is, I am simply conscious,
an animal in pajamas,

sensing only the pale humidity
of the night and the slight zephyrs
that stir the tops of the trees.

The dog has followed me out
and stands a little ahead,
her nose lifted as she were inhaling

the tall white flowers,
visible tonight in the darkened garden,
and there was something else I wanted to tell you,

something about the warm orange light
in the windows of  the house,
but now I am wondering if you are even listening

and why I bother to tell you these things
that will never make a difference,
flecks of ash, tiny chips of ice.

But this is all I want to do—
tell you that up on the woods
a few night birds were calling,

the grass was cold and wet on my bare feet,
and that on one point, the moon,
looking like the top of Shakespeare’s

famous forehead,
appeared, quite unexpectedly,

illuminating a band of moving clouds.

(Billy Collins)

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