Car je est un autre: Patrick Kavanagh

Patrick Kavanagh

(21.10.1904, Inniskeen, County Monaghan, Ireland-30.11.1967, Dublin, Ireland)

To be Dead

To be dead is to stop believing in

The masterpieces we will begin tomorrow;

To be an exile is to be a coward,

To know that growth has stopped,

That whatever is done is the end;

Correct the proofs over and over,

Rewrite old poems again and again,

Tell lies to yourself about your achievement:

Ten printed books on the shelves.

Though you know that no one loves you for

What you have done,

But for what you might do.

And you perhaps take up religion bitterly

Which you laughed at in your youth,

Well not actually laughed

But it wasn’t your kind of truth.

Από την ποιητική συλλογή του Patrick Kavanagh, «Come Dance with Kitty Stobling», Longmans, Green & Co, London, 1960. Πρώτη δημοσίευση στο βραχύβιο περιοδικό (Δεκέμβριος 1949-Ιούλιος 1951), «Envoy-A Review of Literature & Art», χωρίς τον τίτλο και τη λέξη perhaps (3η στροφή-13ος στίχος), τεύχος Οκτωβρίου 1950.