Enrique Jardiel Poncela
4 chosen poems
LIFE
For the brief is… the time of a respite;
a lightning bolt; the crossing of a star;
a blink; a joy; a spark;
a germination; A kiss; one shot;
a chest do; a toast; a sigh;
a flower in a vase; a print;
a friendship; the beauty of a beautiful;
a promise; exit; an I admire you !;
a becoming public a secret;
a passage from corpse to skeleton;
a shipwreck; a rubric; a haze;
a blush; a twilight; a holiday;
an eclipse; a wedding; A yes; a foam;
MY REASONS TO SPEAK HURRY
Oh! Destiny, you rule the rhythm of my life!
Oh! Fate, you give the tone to my existence!
They say I speak in a hurry, cursed quality,
which makes the listener lose time and patience.
Why don't you give me the necessary calm
What did San Luis, Santo Job and Arcadio have?
Can't you see that I'm gambling my life the other way around
every time I have a conference on the radio?
I, who would like to speak clearly about heaven,
Apparently I'm being an ace in the game
and, as is the custom in this class of aces,
I have a snack and digest the end of the sentences.
Give me your clarity in pronunciation
every time I have to act in the broadcast,
and if not clarity to excite laughter,
Tell me at least the cause of why I speak in a hurry.
***
CARLOS ARNICHES
"He's the king of the sainete" —she whispers as she passes by—,
and he passes - long and high - without hearing or looking,
and he does not look or hear because he lives in the heights.
(It should be noted that he is two meters tall.)
The actors, the day that calls for them
to a new "reading", they rejoice ipso facto,
and they embrace, shouting: "Don Carlos is going to read today!"
while the Company moans: "It will only bring one act!"
Write little and good. If it is correct it is a mine:
The gold runs at the box office in the form of a hundred full.
But when he makes a mistake, he builds a sarrazina
of four thousand two hundred and eighty Saracens.
"This man's soul laughs!" I have always heard
by taking my place on opening nights.
"This man's soul laughs." His soul laughs ... Good!
His soul must laugh, because his face does not.
***
PARIS PILGRIMAGE
Blue asphalt and gray sky
what is contemplated vis-à-vis,
or rather, head-to-head.
Aristocracy in fleur de lis
towards the Star and Saint-Denis.
Bourgeois town in La Villete.
Frauleins and children. And a miss
next to a statue of King Louis
in a garden. Voyons, Pierrette,
viens donc ici; you are pas bête!
Rue de la Paix. Claridge Hotel.
Book stand. Hachette House.
Fur layers petit-gray.
And in the «Casino» a starlet
much older than the country,
whom people call «Mis-
They are the most beautiful poems that I have heard