MacDiarmid, Tyutchev and Silence

Running rest-day ... so, some more poetry :-)

This pictured volume, published (and bought) in late 1988, is a Biography, not a poetry collection as such ... but it is nevertheless one of my favourite volumes in my 'poetry collection'.

I read it from cover-to-cover in a matter of days and have forever since been in love with MacDiarmid's poetry.

What Alan Bold does though is much more than recite parts of MacDiarmid's poetry - his explanation of the concluding lines of 'A Drunk Man' introduced me to the Russian poet, Tyutchev ... and here's a translation of Tyutchev's famous Silentium , which I just adore:


Silentium

Be silent, hidden, and conceal
Whate'er you dream, whate'er you feel.
Oh, let your visions rise and die
Within your heart's unfathomed sky,
Like stars that take night's darkened route.
Admire and scan them and be mute.

The heart was born dumb; who can sense
Its tremors, recondite and tense?
And who can hear its silent cry?
A thought when spoken is a lie.
Uncovered springs men will pollute,
Drink hidden waters, and be mute.

Your art shall inner living be.
The world within your fantasy
A kingdom is that waits its Saul.
The outer din shall still its call,
Day's glare its secret suns confute.
Oh, quaff its singing, and be mute.


What a wonderful invocation to Silence, and Darkness, the positive qualities of which seem to have escaped much of the modern world.