Anne Carson, VII

Living Theatre

VII

Mentía cuando no era necesario.
Mentía cuando ni siquiera era conveniente.
Mentía cuando sabía que sabían que estaba mintiendo.

Mentía cuando mentir rompía sus corazones.

Mi corazón. El corazón de ellas. A veces me pregunto qué pasó con ella.

La primera.

(fragmento)

  VII. BUT TO HONOR TRUTH WHICH IS SMOOTH DIVINE AND LIVES AMONG THE GODS WE MUST (WITH PLATO) DANCE LYING WHICH LIVES DOWN BELOW AMID MASS OF MEN BOTH TRAGIC AND ROUGH

—John Keats,

Otho the Great: A Tragedy in Five Acts, I.3.114 ad 114

All myth is an enriched pattern,

a two-faced proposition,

allowing its operator to say one thing and mean another, to lead a double life.

Hence the notion found early in ancient thought that all poets are liars.

And from the true lies of poetry

trickled out a question.

What really connects words and things?

Not much, decided my husband

and proceeded to use language

in the way that Homer says the gods do.

All human words are known to the gods but have for them entirely other meanings

alongside our meanings.

They flip the switch at will.

My husband lied about everything.

Money, meetings, mistresses,

the birthplace of his parents,

the store where he bought shirts, the spelling of his own name.

He lied when it was not necessary to lie.

He lied when it wasn't even convenient.

He lied when he knew they knew he was lying.

He lied when it broke their hearts.

My heart. Her heart. I often wonder what happened to her.

The first one.

There is something pure-edged and burning about the first infidelity in a marriage.

Taxis back and forth.

Tears.

Cracks in the wall where it gets hit.

Lights on late at night.

I cannot live without her.

Her, this word that explodes.

Lights still on in the morning.

Anne Carson 
(Toronto, Canadá, 1950)
de La belleza del marido, un ensayo narrativo en 29 tangos,
Editorial Lumen, España, 2003
Traducción de Ana Becciu
para leer MÁS