One of the spanish poets of the “Generation of ’27” Guillén lived to the ripe old age of 91.
A prolific poet and a respected academic, nominated four times for the Nobel Literature prize. On the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War he was imprisoned in Pamplona for political reasons. He was released and continued to teach in Seville until 1938.
Then he emigrated to the United States. There is speculation that Nationalist Catholic Spain was an unhealthy environment for an academic married to a Jewish wife. It certainly proved to be a very unhealthy climate for his fellow Generation 27 poet Federico Garcia Lorca.
So to a poem about death looming in the distance. A grey wall across our future obscuring what lies beyond.
-o0o-
Muerte a lo lejos: by Jorge Guillén
Je soutenais l’éclat de la mort toute pure.
VALÉRY
Alguna vez me angustia una certeza,
Y ante mí se estremece mi futuro.
Acechándolo está de pronto un muro
del arrabal final en que tropieza
La luz del campo. ¿Mas habrá tristeza
si la desnuda el sol? No, no hay apuro
todavía. Lo urgente es el maduro
fruto. La mano ya lo descorteza.
…Y un día entre los días el más triste
será. Tenderse deberá la mano
sin afán. Y acatando el inminente
Poder diré sin lágrimas: embiste,
justa fatalidad. El muro cano
va a imponerme su ley, no su accidente.
