«Ars poetica», d’Archibald MacLeish

A poem should be palpable and mute

As a globed fruit,

Dumb

As old medallions to the thumb,

Silent as the sleeve-worn stone

Of casement ledges where the moss has grown—

A poem should be wordless

As the flight of birds.

*

A poem should be motionless in time

As the moon climbs,

Leaving, as the moon releases

Twig by twig the night-entangled trees,

Leaving, as the moon behind the winter leaves,

Memory by memory the mind—

A poem should be motionless in time

As the moon climbs.

*

A poem should be equal to:

Not true.

For all the history of grief

An empty doorway and a maple leaf.

For love

The leaning grasses and two lights above the sea—

A poem should not mean

But be.

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ARS POETICA

d’Archibald MacLeish

(trad. Josep Porcar)

Un poema hauria de ser palpable i mut

com un fruit rodó,

mut

com els antics medallons al polze,

silenciós com la pedra gastada

de l’ampit on la molsa s’ha escampat—

Un poema hauria d’existir sense paraules,

com el vol dels ocells.

*

Un poema hauria de restar immòbil en el temps

mentre la lluna s’encimbella,

i abandonar, tal com la lluna allibera,

branca a branca, els arbres embullats de nit,

abandonar, com ho fa la lluna entre les fulles hivernals,

record a record, la ment—

Un poema hauria de restar immòbil en el temps

mentre la lluna s’encimbella.

*

Un poema hauria de ser igual a:

no és veritat.

Per a tota la història del dolor

un pòrtic buit i una fulla d’auró.

Per a l’amor

les herbes vinclant-se i dues llums damunt la mar—

Un poema no hauria de significar

sinó ser.