CANTO DEL RESPONDEDOR

2

Ahora y siempre esperad las palabras de los verdaderos poemas,

Las palabras de los verdaderos poemas no son sólo agradables,

Los poetas verdaderos no son seguidores de la belleza sino

los maestros de la belleza;

La grandeza de los hijos es la exudación de la grandeza de las madres y

padres,

Las palabras de los verdaderos poemas son el copete y el aplauso

definitivo de la ciencia.

Instinto divino, amplitud de visión, la ley de la razón, de la salud,

robustez del cuerpo, recogimiento,

Alegría, caricia fuerte del sol, dulzura del aire, tales algunas de las

palabras de los poemas.

El marinero y el viajero subyacen en el hacedor de poemas, el

Respondedor.

El constructor, geómetra, químico, anatomista, frenólogo, artista, todos

éstos son el sostén del hacedor de poemas, el Respondedor.

Las palabras de los verdaderos poemas nos dan más que los poemas,

Te dan para que formes tú mismo poemas, religiones, política, guerra,

paz, conducta, historia, ensayos, vida cotidiana, y todo lo demás,

Equilibran jerarquías, colores, razas, credos y sexos,

No buscan la belleza, son buscadas,

Tocándolas para siempre,  o cerca sigue la belleza, anhelante,

dispuesta, enamorada.

Ellas nos preparan para la muerte, pero no son el fin, sino más bien el principio,

No llevan a ningún hombre o mujer a su término, ni a darse por contentos

Y llenos,

A los que ellas admiten los llevan al espacio, a fin de que observen

cómo nacen las estrellas, para que aprendan uno de los significados,

Que se lancen con absoluta fe, y recorran los anillos incesantes,

sin quedarse quietos otra vez.

Walt Whitman ( EE UU, West Hills 1819 - Camden, 1892)

(De: Hojas de Hierba, 

edición completa de Losada,

Traducción: Pablo Ingberg

SONG OF THE ANSWERER

2

The indications and tally of time,

Perfect sanity shows the master among philosophs,

Time, always without break, indicates itself in parts,

What always indicates the poet is the crowd of the pleasant com-

pany of singers, and their words,

The words of the singers are the hours or minutes of the light or

dark, but the words of the maker of poems are the general

light and dark,

The maker of poems settles justice, reality, immortality,

His insight and power encircle things and the human race,

He is the glory and extract thus far of things and of the human

race.

The singers do not beget, only the Poet begets,

The singers are welcom'd, understood, appear often enough, but

rare has the day been, likewise the spot, of the birth of the

maker of poems, the Answerer,

(Not every century nor every five centuries has contain'd such a

day, for all its names.)

The singers of successive hours of centuries may have ostensible

names, but the name of each of them is one of the singers,

The name of each is, eye-singer, ear-singer, head-singer, sweet-

singer, night-singer, parlor-singer, love-singer, weird-singer,

or something else.

All this time and at all times wait the words of true poems,

The words of true poems do not merely please,

The true poets are not followers of beauty but the august masters

of beauty;

The greatness of sons is the exuding of the greatness of mothers

and fathers,

The words of true poems are the tuft and final applause of science.

Divine instinct, breadth of vision, the law of reason, health, rudeness

of body, withdrawnness,

Gayety, sun-tan, air-sweetness, such are some of the words of poems.

The sailor and traveler underlie the makers of poems, the Answerer,

The builder, geometer, chemist, anatomist, phrenologist, artist, all

these underlie the maker of poems, the Answerer.

The words of the true poems give you more than poems,

They give you to form for yourself poems, religions, politics, war,

peace, behavior, histories, essays, daily life, and every thing

else,

They balance ranks, colors, races, creeds, and the sexes,

They do not seek beauty, they are sought,

Forever touching them or close upon them follows beauty, longing,

fain, love-sick.

They prepare for death, yet are they not the finish, but rather the

outset,

They bring none to his or her terminus or to be content and full,

Whom they take they take into space to behold the birth of stars,

to learn one of the meanings,

To launch off with absolute faith, to sweep through the ceaseless

rings and never be quiet again.