Lisäys Larkiniin
A few lines more
Tänään on pakko jatkaa ja lisätä eilen aloitetun Philip Larkinin runon This Be The Verse kaksi jäljellä olevaa säkeistöä. Muuten joku vielä luulee, että kyseinen runo on vitsikäs pikku huumoripala. Oli väärin siteerata sitä eilisessä yhteydessä, eikä tällaiseen lainailuun ja silppurointiin ole muutenkaan lupaa. Menkää siis ja ostakaa oma kokoelma. Tämä runo on minulle aina omituinen lukukokemus. Se on pinnalta hauska mutta laskeutuu syviin, masentuneisiin syövereihinsä juhlallisella vääjäämättömyydellä. Ja siinä samassa onkin jalkojen juuressa koko inhimillisen kurjuuden ja surkeuden sukupolvelta toiselle siirtyvä, alati laajeneva perintö.
[...]But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another's throats.
Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don't have any kids yourself.
Aiemmin viikolla tuntui enemmän tältä. Tänään on itse asiassa kaunis, aurinkoinen aamu. [Päivitys: höpsis, aurinkoa kesti puoli tuntia. Nyt sataa.]
***
I feel I did a disservice to Philip Larkin's This Be The Verse by only quoting the witty first verse, and in such a trivial context. So here is the rest of it. And now you'll need to go and by a whole book to justify my copyright crime.
I think, for me, the greatness of the poem lies in the way its murky underwaters reveal themselves gradually. The f-words and the regular rhythm (tetrameter?) lead you to expect something a bit different. But before too long you have at your feet no less than the whole, heavy heritage of human misery.
[...]But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another's throats.
Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don't have any kids yourself.
It is actually quite a nice, crisp, sunny morning here today. [Update: nonsense, after 30 mins of sunshine it is now raining.]
Comments - Kommentit
Hi Anni.
Nice quotes from Phillip Larkin.
Sounds like he had a tough family life. Maybe that is normal, though.
Denis
Posted by: Denis | April 1, 2006 01:41 PM
I understand he was a seriously gloomy person. I also remember reading that he didn't mix with other kids as a child. And later on in life, he claimed this was because he never liked children (not even when he was one himself).
Posted by: Anni | April 1, 2006 03:12 PM
That explains a lot. Thanks.
Posted by: Denis | April 2, 2006 12:10 AM
Larkin's parents did indeed give him a hard time. Although, as Alan Bennett once pointed out, the poet's childhood provided him with a theme for his poetry that lasted a lifetime, his work only getting gloomier and more bitter as time went by (try his late poem, "Aubade", with its opening pentameter: "I work all day and get half drunk at night"). If Larkin's parents had provided him with a happier childhood, he might not have had his career, in which case, as Bennett suggests, they'd have really fucked him up.
Posted by: Andy | April 2, 2006 01:51 PM