Meeting Point

 

Time was away and somewhere else, 

There were two glasses and two chairs 

And two people with the one pulse 

(Somebody stopped the moving stairs): 

Time was away and somewhere else. 

And they were neither up nor down; 

The stream’s music did not stop, 

Flowing through heather, limpid brown, 

Although they sat in a coffee shop 

And they were neither up nor down. 

The bell was silent in the air 

Holding its inverted poise - 

Between the clang and clang a flower, 

A brazen calyx of no noise: 

The bell was silent in the air. 

The camels crossed the miles of sand 

That stretched around the cups and plates; 

The desert was their own, they planned 

To portion out the stars and dates: 

The camels crossed the miles of sand. 

Time was away and somewhere else. 

The waiter did not come, the clock 

Forgot them and the radio waltz 

Came out like water from a rock: 

Time was away and somewhere else. 

Her fingers flicked away the ash 

That bloomed again in tropic trees: 

Not caring if the markets crash 

When they had forests such as these, 

Her fingers flicked away the ash. 

God or whatever means the Good 

Be praised that time can stop like this, 

That what the heart has understood 

Can verify in the body’s peace 

God or whatever means the Good. 

Time was away and she was here 

And life no longer what it was, 

The bell was silent in the air 

And all the room a glow because 

Time was away and she was here.

Louis MacNeice

in, The Collected Poems of Louis MacNeice

Prayer Before Birth

 

I am not yet born; O hear me.

Let not the bloodsucking bat or the rat or the stoat or the

club-footed ghoul come near me.

I am not yet born, console me.

I fear that the human race may with tall walls wall me,

with strong drugs dope me, with wise lies lure me,

on black racks rack me, in blood-baths roll me.

I am not yet born; provide me

With water to dandle me, grass to grow for me, trees to talk

to me, sky to sing to me, birds and a white light

in the back of my mind to guide me.

I am not yet born; forgive me

For the sins that in me the world shall commit, my words

when they speak me, my thoughts when they think me,

my treason engendered by traitors beyond me,

my life when they murder by means of my

hands, my death when they live me.

I am not yet born; rehearse me

In the parts I must play and the cues I must take when

old men lecture me, bureaucrats hector me, mountains

frown at me, lovers laugh at me, the white

waves call me to folly and the desert calls

me to doom and the beggar refuses

my gift and my children curse me.

I am not yet born; O hear me,

Let not the man who is beast or who thinks he is God

come near me.

I am not yet born; O fill me

With strength against those who would freeze my

humanity, would dragoon me into a lethal automaton,

would make me a cog in a machine, a thing with

one face, a thing, and against all those

who would dissipate my entirety, would

blow me like thistledown hither and

thither or hither and thither

like water held in the

hands would spill me.

Let them not make me a stone and let them not spill me.

Otherwise kill me.

Louis MacNeice

in, The Collected Poems of Louis MacNeice

Eu ainda não nasci; ó, escutai-me.
Não deixeis o vampiro ou a ratazana ou a doninha
ou o espírito de pés aleijados aproximarem-se de mim.

Eu ainda não nasci, consolai-me.
Temo que a raça humana venha a emparedar-me,
ou a drogar-me com drogas fortes, com finas mentiras me tente,
com negros acúleos me torture, em banhos de sangue me enrole.

Eu ainda não nasci; abonai-me
Com água para me embalar, erva que cresça para mim,
árvores que me falem, um céu que me cante, pássaros
e uma luz brilhante a guiar-me por detrás da mente.

Eu ainda não nasci; perdoai-me
Pelos pecados que em mim o mundo cometerá, pelas palavras
quando me disserem, pelos pensamentos quando me pensarem,
pelas minhas traições engendradas por traidores além de mim,
pela minha vida quando matarem através das minhas
mãos, pela morte quando me viverem.

Eu ainda não nasci; recitai-me
Nos actos em que hei-de actuar e nas deixas que direi quando
um velho me ler. Os burocratas intimidam-me, as montanhas
franzem-me o sobrolho, os amantes gozam-me, as ondas
brancas enlouquecem-me e o deserto leva-me
à ruína e o indigente recusa-me
a esmola e os meus filhos amaldiçoam-me.

Eu ainda não nasci; Ó, escutai-me,
Não deixeis que a besta ou aquele que se julga Deus
se aproximem de mim.

Eu ainda não nasci; Ó, alimentai-me
Com força contra aqueles que tentarão congelar a minha
humanidade, forçando-me a ser um autómato letal,
transformando-me num dente de roda na engrenagem, coisa
de uma só face, uma coisa, e contra todos aqueles
que dissiparão a minha integridade,
soprando-me como lanugem de cá
para lá ou de lá para cá
como água levada nas
mãos que me hão-de derramar.

Não deixeis que façam de mim uma pedra e que me arremessem.
Caso contrário, matai-me.


Louis MacNeice