Sebastopólidas

I think I will not hang myself today

Éste es uno de los pocos poemas que me he aprendido de memoria por gusto. Y es que me hace una gracia tremenda (bueno, también me hacen mucha gracia Las Letanías de Satán, de Baudelaire)
En cambio, tengo clavados en el cerebro, como piolets de inverosímiles escaladores, todos esos otros poemas que me hicieron aprender en la escuela y de los que el único placer que extraje fue el de ejercitar ese músculo que llaman memoria.

"De la horca en mi jardín, dice la gente
Que es nueva, limpia y de altura decente.
Me pongo el nudo al cuello de una forma estudiada,
Como una pajarita para una culta velada.
Pero mientras los vecinos al muro asomados, contienen el aliento
para aplaudir preparados.
El más extraño capricho me ha llegado a atrapar
Y creo que, después de todo, hoy no me pienso ahorcar".

La Balada del suicida GILBERT KEITH CHESTERTON

The gallows in my garden, people say,
Is new and neat and adequately tall;
I tie the noose on in a knowing way
As one that knots his necktie for a ball;
But just as all the neighbours--on the wall--
Are drawing a long breath to shout "Hurray!"
The strangest whim has seized me. . . . After all
I think I will not hang myself to-day.

To-morrow is the time I get my pay--
My uncle's sword is hanging in the hall--
I see a little cloud all pink and grey--
Perhaps the rector's mother will not call--
I fancy that I heard from Mr. Gall
That mushrooms could be cooked another way--
I never read the works of Juvenal--
I think I will not hang myself to-day.

The world will have another washing-day;
The decadents decay; the pedants pall;
And H.G. Wells has found that children play,
And Bernard Shaw discovered that they squall,
Rationalists are growing rational--
And through thick woods one finds a stream astray
So secret that the very sky seems small--
I think I will not hang myself to-day.

ENVOI
Prince, I can hear the trumpet of Germinal,
The tumbrils toiling up the terrible way;
Even to-day your royal head may fall,
I think I will not hang myself to-day