Cowper: La pollancreda

 

Gainsborough 1770

"Han tallat els pollancs. Adéu, ombra i murmuri

i columnata fresca! Ja no hi juguen els vents,

ni en sentireu el cant entremig de les fulles,

i a les aigües de l'Ouse aquell verd s'esvaí.

Fa dotze anys que vaig veure per primera vegada

el meu camp predilecte, la riba on han crescut;

i ara, mireu: damunt de l'herbei són estesos

i m'assec sobre l'arbre que ombra fina em donà.

El merlot ara és lluny, cap a un altre refugi

on troba, en dies càlids, frescor d'avellaners,

i al paisatge on l'encís del seu flauteig sentia

no arriben les passades d'aquell cant sempre dolç.

Els meus anys fugitius s'esvaeixen de pressa

i aviat m'estaré per terra, mort com ells,

amb l'herbei sobre el pit i al meu cap una llosa,

abans que una altra arbreda torni a ombrejar el camí."

 William Cowper (1731-1800), The Poplar Field (1784)

(traducció de Marià Manent a "Poesia anglesa i nord-americana", Editorial Alpha, 1955)

Text original (amb una estrofa més que la traducció de Manent):

"The Poplars are fell’d, farewell to the shade

And the whispering sound of the cool colonnade,

The winds play no longer and sing in the leaves,

Nor Ouse on his bosom their image receives.

Twelve years have elapsed since I last took a view

Of my favourite field and the bank where they grew,

And now in the grass behold they are laid,

And the tree is my seat that once lent me a shade.

The black-bird has fled to another retreat

Where the hazels afford him a screen from the heat,

And the scene where his melody charm’d me before,

Resounds with his sweet-flowing ditty no more.

My fugitive years are all hasting away,

And I must e’er long lie as lowly as they,

With a turf on my breast and a stone at my head

E’er another such grove shall arise in its stead.

’Tis a sight to engage me if any thing can

To muse on the perishing pleasures of Man;

Though his life be a dream, his enjoyments, I see,

Have a Being less durable even than he."