Friday, April 1, 2022

T.s. Eliot's 'The Waste Land'...almost a hundred years old...

 If joyce can have Blooms day, then Eliot should have his day and what better than April 1st?

The Waste Land

                                  FOR EZRA POUND
                                IL MIGLIOR FABBRO

              I. The Burial of the Dead

  April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee
With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade,
And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten,
And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.
Bin gar keine Russin, stamm’ aus Litauen, echt deutsch.
And when we were children, staying at the arch-duke’s,
My cousin’s, he took me out on a sled,
And I was frightened. He said, Marie,
Marie, hold on tight. And down we went.
In the mountains, there you feel free.
I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.

I read the whole thing for the Poetry Voice podcast...it swings....

http://www.liamguilar.com/the-poetry-voice/2019/8/27/tseliots-the-waste-land

1 comment:

Mike Alexander said...

I remember, it was many years ago, a poet
friend told he that he couldn't read
Eliot, it being too intellectual,
& his being an emotive voice --
I told him, close your eyes
& listen, & I read him
much of the Waste
Land, & he g(r)asped