Wilde, hapishanedeyken idam edilen bir mahkumdan çok etkilenmiş ve bu baladı kaleme almış. Balad içinde bir çok konuyu barındırıyor, hem insan hayatına hem sevmeye hem de bir çok toplumsal değere değiniyor, anlatılacak değil okunacak bir kitap.

"insanlar öldürür sevmeye görsün
Kulak verin bana duyun bunları,
Kimi kem gözüyle harcar aşkını,
Kimi hoş sözüyle alır canını,
Korkaklar öldürür öpücüğüyle,
Gözüpekse kılıç tutan eliyle..."

I first read this poem when I was 11 years old. It was given to me by my Great Aunt Myrtle in an old book of poetry she had in her collection. She was a former English teacher with lots of literary gems on her bookshelf. She knew I was interested in writing and had won a couple of poetry contests at school, so she gave me the book and told me to enjoy. The pages were old and yellow but inside were some of the most beautiful poems I have ever read and none so beautiful as The Ballad of Reading Gaol.

I stayed up all night reading the poem again and again with tears in my eyes. Tears not only for the sad story that the poem told but for the sheer beauty of Wilde's poetry. I'd never been so moved by the written word. Over the years I've read and re-read this poem many times and it moves me even more deeply now than the first time I read it. I only thought I grasped the totality of emotion Wilde was trying to express through my child's eyes at the age of 11. Then again at 15 when I recited it for a class presentation in high school, and again in my 20's when I'd read it occasionally before bed. Now that I'm 36, I fully recognize this piece for what it is- A MASTERPIECE and quite simply, the most beautiful poem ever written.

De nuevo me fallan tus lectores, goodreads. ¿Cómo que tres y cuatro estrellas? este hermoso poema se merece diez y serían pocas. En fin, hace un tiempo compré el libro en el remate del auditorio. La edición que yo leí es una edición bilingüe (gracias a Dios) hecha por Quimera y traducida modestamente por Hernán Bravo Varela con un prólogo de J. E. Pacheco (pachochas). La traducción está bien, no muy bien, pero está bien y eso ya es bastante. En general resuelve muy bien varios problemas de traducción y se ve que es una traducción cuidada. ¿Cuanto le pongo en traducción? 3 de 5. Liked it, como dirían los estándares del goodreads.
Luego tuve que escribir un texto chiquito para relacionar el verso de Huidobro "más triste que el mar después de un naufragio" con el verso muy famoso de Oscar Wilde, "Los hombres matan lo que aman". No puedo poner el texto aquí pero después de que lo termine bien, pienso subirlo a terrario y entonces sí lo comparto por este medio. Mientras quédese la impresión de que es un poema interesantísimo, construido de manera maravillosa y que merece ser leído y razonado cientos de veces, sobre todo en el estado actual de este absurdo país que es México.

"πως κάθε φυλακή που χτίζουν οι άνθρωποι,
χτίζεται με τα λιθάρια της ντροπής και κλείνεται με σίδερα για
να μη δει ο Χριστός πως άνθρωποι βασανίζουνε τ' αδέρφια τους.
Με τα σίδερα παραμορφώνουνε το φεγγάρι και
σκοτεινιάζουνε την όψη του ήλιου"

"Μα δε μπορούν να φυτρώσουνε στον αγέρα της φυλακής
ούτε τ' άσπρα, ούτε τα κόκκινα τριαντάφυλλα. Πέτρες, χαλίκια
και σπασμένα γυαλιά είν' ό,τι μας έκλεισες εκεί μέσα. Γιατί είναι
γνωστό πως τα λουλούδια μαλακώνουνε τον πόνο των απλών
ανθρώπων."

"Έχοντας μεσάνυχτα στη καρδιά και σούρουπο στο κελί
μας, γυρίζουμε τη μανιβέλα και ξαίνουμε τα σχοινιά μες στη
πικρή φυλακή μας. "

"Ευτυχισμένοι κείνοι που οι καρδιές τους τσακίζουνε και
που βρίσκουνε στη συγνώμη, τη γαλήνη. Πως αλλιώς
μπορούσεν ο άνθρωπος να καθαρίσει από τα κρίματα, την
αμαρτωλή του ψυχή; Από που αλλού μπορεί να μπει ο γιος του
Θεού, αν όχι από τη τσακισμένη καρδιά μας;"

En fazla yarım saat ya da bir saat içerisinde bitirebileceğiniz, kısacık, akıcı, duygu yüklü bir şiir kitabı.

Dorian Gray'in Portresi ile roman yönünden tanıştığım Oscar Wilde'ın aynı zamanda başarılı bir şair olduğunu da öğrenmiş oldum. Okuyun, okutun.

Şu satırlara zaten aşinasınızdır:

"Kulak verin sözlerime iyice,
Herkes öldürebilir sevdiğini
Kimi bir bakışıyla yapar bunu,
Kimi dalkavukça sözlerle,
Korkaklar öpücük ile öldürür,
Yürekliler kılıç darbeleriyle!

Kimi gençken öldürür sevdiğini
Kimileri yaşlı iken öldürür;
Şehvetli ellerle öldürür kimi
Kimi altından ellerle öldürür;
Merhametli kişi bıçak kullanır
Çünkü bıçakla ölen çabuk soğur." Tozan Alkan çevirisiyle

It's very upsetting for me to realize that this was based on Wilde's real-life experiences in the Reading Gaol. The despair and horror play strongly in the mind after reading the ballad as well as the circumstances of the featured characters imprisonment. A beautiful and haunting work of excellent imagery and feeling - a masterpiece!

The very name Oscar Wilde is synonymous with wit and intelligence, and of course the best that the Victorian literature has to offer. But this is not the whole story, as most of us know, Wilde was convicted of homosexual offences in 1895 and sentenced to two years' hard labour in prison. For a man of his fame, intelligence and standing, this was a death sentence.
After his release, Wilde spent most of his life in France and it is there that he wrote this poem. He suggested that it be published in Reynold's Magazine, "because it circulates widely among the criminal classes – to which I now belong – for once I will be read by my peers – a new experience for me.”

In this 109 stanza long poem, He decries the modern prison system and the dehumanizing effect it has on the inmates. He saw the devastating psychological effect it has not only on the condemned, but also on those who condemn them in the name of justice. Eventually, it was the hanging of an inmate accused of killing his wife that affected him the most and lead to the creation of this masterpiece. Wilde identified with him, and in him he saw his own fate, gloomy and irredeemable. But what surprised me the most were the religious connotations that kept on appearing within the stanzas that were most unlike his usual style.

The futility of life and love that dawned on him during his prison years are clearly reflected in the ballad, he repeatedly pictures himself and the inmates as the cast outs who are thrown out by the society, condemned and damned. It is heartbreaking to see a man as lively and intelligent as Wilde ending up the way he did.
There is so much pain in these lines, that to feel indifferent to his suffering is beyond ones control.

“Yet each man kills the thing he loves
By each let this be heard.
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word.
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword!”

Wilde lived only 2 more years after his release and that too, in exile as an unknown no-body.

A passage from the poem was chosen as the epitaph on Wilde's tomb;

“And alien tears will fill for him,
Pity's long-broken urn,
For his mourners will be outcast men,
And outcasts always mourn.”

Oh Oscar Wilde. Oh Oscar Wilde.

I complained, when I read "The Soul of Man Under Socialism," that you simply didn't GET it, and it made me want to cry.

But this one made me want to cry because I think you DID get it, in the end.

Oh Oscar Wilde.

Sad, pained, reflective.

Ballad of Reading Gaol - Oscar Wilde  I don't read a lot of poetry as such because my favorites rhyme and are silly; so nothing since Old Possum really. (In my defense, I pay a lot of attention to song lyrics, and enjoy a slant rhyme or an unusual rhythm, otherwise, as you may have noticed, I read a lot of children's books which meet both my criteria but aren't usually labeled "poetry"). I honestly can't remember if I read this in its entirety back in the day: there were a lot of English literature classes, and a lot of reading, only a small portion of which actually stuck, although I can usually guess the age and author within a hundred years or so, so, you know, I learned context, and that's something, right? (Please Mr. Edwards, don't feel that your teaching was in vain.)
Whatever got me thinking about Wilde got me reading up on him in Wikipedia, and got me wondering about the validity of Ellman's biography (which I dearly loved, but it's been more than 20 years, so it is a bit vague now) and from one thing to another down the rabbit hole until I read the Ballad of Reading Gaol. Despite it's complete lack of silliness I quite enjoyed it, and found it very moving. But the real shocker was how many of its lines I had seen quoted, without recognizing the source before. Woah.
Wilde was foolish to file the suit, but damn, no one deserves what he endured (he and others, so many others) for love.
personal copy

Uneori, poate fi chiar mai atroce să observi suferințele unui semăn decât să le trăiești pe ale tale; când ceva e în afara ta, pare mai real. De la povestea altcuiva își începe Oscar poezia, făcând mereu paralele cu propria lui situație. Ai putea spune că suferința nu poate fi conținută în cuvinte, dar iată că el a reușit să transmită toate ororile prin rime perfecte. Cartea este o splendoare absolută.

Recenzie completă: https://cristinaboncea.com/balada-inc...