Lo que pensó Bruno

Me encontré un poema que, por dos razones bien distintas, creo que te interesará:

trata de la poesía misma,
y para explicarla usa una anécdota sobre Giordano Bruno.

Sé que te gusta la poesía pues en muchas cartas defiendes a Ariosto (autor del Orlando furioso) y atacas a Tasso (y su Jerusalén liberada). Y supongo que conociste el caso de Bruno y te habrá interesado pues en 1600 fue llevado a la hoguera por su original manera de pensar el mundo.

Te pongo sólo la parte final del poema, pero puedes verlo completo aquí.

What he Thought

Heather McHugh
...
"What is poetry?

Is it the fruits and vegetables

and the marketplade at Campo dei Fiori

or the statue there?" Because I was

the glib one, I identified the answer

instantly, I didnt have to think -- "The truth

is both, it's both!" I blurted out. But that

was easy. That was the easiest

to say. What followed taught me something

about difficulty,

for our underestimated host spoke out

all of a sudden, with a rising passion, and he said:

The statue represents

Giordano Bruno, brought

to be burned in the publc square

because of his offence against authority, which is to say

the Church. His crime was his belief

the universe does not revolve around

the human being: God is no

fixed point or central governmet

but rather is poured in waves, through

all things: all things

move. "If God is not the soul itself,

he is the soul OF THE SOUL of the world." Such was

his heresy. The day they brought him forth to die

they feared he might incite the crowd (the man

was famous for his eloquence): And so his captors

placed upon his face

an iron mask

in which he could not speak.

That is how they burned him.

That is how he died,

whithout a word,

in front of everyone. And poetry

(we'd all put down our forks by now, to listen

to the man in gray; he went on softly)-- poetry

is what he though, but did not say.