Poesia kaiera
Antzinako keinua
Amantaleko puntaz begiak xukatzean pentsatu nuen:
Penelopek ere egin zuen honela.
Eta ez behin bakarrik: ezin duzu egun osoa ehuntzen eman
Eta dena desegiten gau osoa;
Idunaren atzealdea gogortzen zaizu, eta nekatzen besoa;
Eta goizaldera bidean, argiaz etsita gogoa,
Eta senarra joanda, hainbat urtez, ez dakizu nora,
Bat-batean negarrez urtzen zara;
Zer egin daiteke bestela.
Amantaleko puntaz begiak xukatzean pentsatu nuen:
Hau antzinako keinua da, zinezkoa, antigoalekoa,
Tradiziorik onenekoa, klasikoa, grekoa,
Ulisesek ere egin zuen honela.
Baina keinu huts gisa… jendetzak pentsa zezan
Berba egiteko hunkituegi zegoela.
Peneloperi ikasi zion…
Peneloperi, benetan egin baitzuen negar.
An Ancient Gesture
I thought, as I wiped my eyes on the corner of my apron: / Penelope did this too. / And more than once: you can’t keep weaving all day / And undoing it all through the night; / Your arms get tired, and the back of your neck gets tight; / And along towards morning, when you think it will never be light, / And your husband has been gone, and you don’t know where, for years, / Suddenly you burst into tears; / There is simply nothing else to do. // And I thought, as I wiped my eyes on the corner of my apron: / This is an ancient gesture, authentic, antique. / In the very best tradition, classic, Greek ; / Ulysses did this too. / But only as a gesture,—a gesture which implied / To the assembled throng that he was much too moved to speak. / He learned it from Penelope ... / Penelope, who really cried.