Poesia kaiera
Aurkibidea
Aurkibidea
I
Joko-zelaia markatzen genuen: lau jaka lau zutointzat,
Hori zen guztia. Hor zeuden
Kornerrak eta areak, zoru malkartsuaren azpian
Longitude-latitudeak bezala,
Batzuetan ados jarriz besteetan ez,
Unearen arabera. Eta gero taldeak aukeratzen genituen
Eta izenez deitzean gure arteko muga zeharkatzen genuen.
Gazteak zelaian eztarria lehertu beharrean garrasika
Eguna azkenetan zegoen arren jolasean jarraitzen zuten
Itsu ari ziren jokatzen ordurako
Eta ostikoz jotako baloia beraiengana etortzen zen
Amets astun bat bezala, eta arnas estuek
Ilunean eta zelai gaineko laprastek
Beste mundu bateko lanak ziruditen…
Bizia eta lehiatua, azkenik behar ez zuen
Partida. Muga batzuk gainditu egin ziren,
Han bazen zalutasuna, aitzinamendua, nekerik eza
Aldi bikain, ezusteko eta aske hartan.
II
Gustatzen zitzaizkizun orubean taketez eginiko marrak ere,
Listari mehearen lehenengo mutur parean
Zuloa egiten zuen pala bezala. Edo, doi-doi tenkaturiko soka
Etxe baten zimenduak markatzen,
Kantoi bakoitzean angelu zuzena eratzen ipinitako listoi margulak,
Ohol ebaki berri bakoitza,
Harrigarri maskaldutako belar gainean ezin txukunago paratuta.
Edo, lantzeko soroan
Zirrindolari jositako hesola batetik
Bestera doan irudizko lerroa.
III
Gauza hauek guztiak zure baitara sartzen ziren,
Batetik atea bera eta bestetik atea zeharkatzen zuen oro, dena bat balitz bezala.
Lekua markatzen zuten, denbora markatzen zuten eta irekita zituzten.
Uzta-makinak brontzezko arta-itsasoa bitan banatzen zuen.
Gindax batek erdiko urak jasotzen zituen.
Bi gizonek trontzarekin igeri daramate
Pago moztu baterantz, euren atzera-aurrerekin
Lehorrean arraunean ziruditela.
Markings
I
We marked the pitch: four jackets for four goalposts, / That was all. The corners and the squares / Were there like longitude and latitude / Under the bumpy ground, to be / Agreed about or disagreed about / When the time came. And then we picked the teams / And crossed the line our called names drew between us. // Youngsters shouting their heads off in a field / As the light died and they kept on playing / Because by then they were playing in their heads / And the actual kicked ball came to them / Like a dream heaviness, and their own hard / Breathing in the dark and skids on grass / Sounded like effort in another world ... / It was quick and constant, a game that never need / Be played out. some limit had been passed, / There was fleetness, furtherance, tiredness, / In time that was extra, unforeseen and free.
II
You also loved lines pegged out in the garden, / The spade nicking the first straight edge along / The tight white string. Or string stretched perfectly / To make the outline of a house foundation, / Pale timber battens set at right angles / For every corner, each freshly sawn new board / Spick and span in the oddly passive grass. / Or the imaginary line straight down / A field of grazing, to be ploughed open / From the rod stuck in one headrig to the rod / Stuck in the other.
III
All these things entered you / As if they were both the door and what came through it. / They marked the spot, marked time and held it open. / A mower parted the bronze sea of corn. / A windlass hauled the centre out of water. / Two men wiht a cross-cut kept in it swimming / Into a felled beech backwards and forwards / So that the seemed to row the steady earth.