La Alpujarra 4-6

[poliphilo]

4. BUNUEL

 

Hypocrisy is sometimes merely

Good manners,

 

                   Or should we turn that round

And call good manners hypocrisy?

 

He was, I’ve read, urbane himself,

A typical bourgeois-  Drinky-drinks

And a dog at his feet.

 

                             My favourite picture

Shows him sighting a hunting rifle

Straight at the camera.

 

                             Who do you think

We’re going to meet when we round this corner?

Could it be Fernando Rey

In a nice white suit? “Hola, Fernando.”

Could it be the parish priest

In his broad-brimmed hat? “Good evening, father”

Could it be a yellow dog

With its tongue wag-wagging, dispensing drool?

Pad, pad, pad, not quite a wolf,

But not exactly man’s best friend either.

 

5. COLUMBUS

 

Cristofero

Enters the church,

His coffin carried

By cruel princes.

 

Hear the kettle-drums,

Doom, doom,

Hear the trumpets,

Hear the conches.

 

Riches, riches,

Rot the heart;

Cristofero’s

Was exceedingly rotted.

 

I would not want

That rotted heart

Of Cristofero’s

To be beating near me.

 

Doom, doom,

Doom, doom

Cristofero

Goes to the tomb.

 

His fame flaps

Like a flag on a beach

And booms like a cannonade

Fired at mountains.

 

6 . NADA

 

Roy Campbell

Fought for Franco,

Fought for the lovely Catholic Church,

 

For the cool vision

Of John of the Cross,

For water ticking on cool stone,

 

For lovely darkness

And lovely light

And nothing, nothing, nothing.

Comments

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Roy Campbell went on to translate the poems of St. John of the Cross.

"Nothing" is a tease...

It might be indicative of the "dark night" in which the human soul achieves union with the Divine or, on the other hand....