The Lowlands of Holland

Eu podia pôr menos Geoffrey Hill neste blog? Podia, mas não era a mesma— Não, na realidade não podia. Aliado ao facto de este ser certamente dos melhores poemas sobre a Europa contemporânea que eu jamais li. Só de pensar que foi escrito nos '50...

Of Commerce and Society
II The Lowlands of Holland

Europe, the much-scarred, much-scoured terrain,
Its attested liberties, home-produce,
Labelled and looking up, invites use,
Stuffed with artistry and substantial gain:

Shrunken, magnified —(nest, holocaust)—
Not half innocent and not half undone;
Profiting from custom: its replete strewn
Cities such ample monuments to lost

Nations and generations: its cultural
Or trade skeletons such hard-picked bone:
Flaws in the best, revised science marks down:
Witness many devices; the few natural

Corruptions, graftings; witness classic falls;
(The dead subtracted, the greatest resigned;)
Witness earth fertilised, decently drained,
The sea decent again behind walls.


Geoffrey Hill. For the Unfalen: poems 1952-1958. Andre Deutsch: 1979