poetry


  • Original title: Funeral Blues or Stop all the clocks

  • Author: W. H. Auden

  • Date of publication: 1936

  • Literary genre: Poetry

  • Languages: English > Spanish

  • Format: Word

  • Synopsis:

    "Funeral Blues", or "Stop all the clocks", is a poem by W. H. Auden which first appeared in the 1936 play The Ascent of F6. Auden substantially rewrote the poem several years later as a cabaret song for the singer Hedli Anderson. Both versions were set to music by the composer Benjamin Britten. The second version was first published in 1938 and was titled "Funeral Blues" in Auden's 1940 Another Time. The poem experienced renewed popularity after being read in the film Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), which also led to increased attention on Auden's other work. It has since been cited as one of the most popular modern poems in the United Kingdom.

    (Text by Funeral Blues, Wikipedia),

  • O.T.

    Stop all the clocks

    Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,

    Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,

    Silence the pianos and with muffled drum

    Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

    Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead

    Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,

    Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,

    Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

    He was my North, my South, my East and West,

    My working week and my Sunday rest,

    My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;

    I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

    The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;

    Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;

    Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.

    For nothing now can ever come to any good.

  • T.T.

    Que paren el reloj

    Que corten el teléfono, que paren el reloj.

    Con un hueso jugoso, haced callar al perro.

    Silenciad el piano y, con un sordo tambor,

    que entre el ataúd y los que van de duelo.

    Dejad que los aviones se quejen por el cielo,

    que escriban en las nubes que Él ya no está vivo,

    vestid a las palomas con lazos color negro

    y que los policías lleven guantes sombríos.

    Él fue mi norte y mi sur, mi este y mi oeste.

    Mis días de trabajo, mis fines de semana,

    mi día y mi noche, mi música y mi mente.

    El amor no es eterno y yo me equivocaba.

    No queremos estrellas, nada de resplandores.

    Que empaqueten la luna, que destruyan el sol,

    que vacíen los mares, que destrocen los bosques,

    porque no hay nada bueno desde que me dejó.