JANET LOXLEY LEWIS [19.765]

JANET LOXLEY LEWIS

(Chicago, Estados Unidos, 1899-Los Altos, Estados Unidos, 1998).

Janet Lewis nació en Chicago, Illinois y asistió a la Universidad de Chicago. Fundó la revista literaria Gyroscope junto con su marido, el poeta y crítico Yvor Winters, y enseñó en Stanford y la Universidad de California en Berkeley. Conocida sobre todo como  autora de novelas históricas, Lewis dedicó tanto a los años iniciales y finales de su vida a la poesía. Su poesía nunca ganó la aclamación generalizada, pero se ha desarrollado un grupo de admiradores, incluyendo Kenneth Rexroth, Theodore Roethke, y Dana Gioia. En poemas como "Highlands Carmel," Lewis crea imágenes fuertes, vivas, escritura de lirismo rítmica.

BIBLIOGRAFÍA:

Poesía:

The Indians in the Woods. Published by Monroe Wheeler, as Manikin Number One, Bonn, Germany, n.d. [1922].

The Wheel in Midsummer Lynn, Mass, The Lone Gull, 1927.

The Earth-Bound' Aurora, New York, Wells College Press, 1946

Poems 1924 – 1944 Denver, Alan Swallow, 1950

The Ancient Ones Portola Valley, California: No Dead Lines, 1979

The Indians in the Woods 2nd edition with new preface, Palo-Alto California, Matrix Press, 1980.

Poems Old and New 1918 – 1978 Chicago/Athens, Ohio: Swallow Press / Ohio University Press 1981

Late Offerings Florence, Ky, Robert L. Barth, 1988

Janet and Deloss: Poems and Pictures San Diego, Brighton Press 1990

The Dear Past and other poems 1919 – 1994 Edgewood Ky, Robert L. Barth, 1994

The Selected Poems of Janet Lewis thens Ohio, Swallow Press / Ohio University Press, 2000, ISBN 978-0-8040-1023-8.

Joven criada

Apacible y pausada y joven,

Va y viene por la estancia,

Y agita el polvo del verano

Con su gran escoba.

En el aire cálido, abuhardillado,

Labios suaves, firmemente apretados,

Cabello suave, etéreo,

Se detiene para descansar,

Se detiene para tomar aliento,

En medio del rumor del verano,

La gran lila blanca

Con el perfume de los días por venir.

Poems Old and New, Ohio University Press, Ohio, 1981.

Versión de Jonio González

GIRL HELP

Mild and slow and young,

She moves about the room,

And stirs the summer dust

With her wide broom.

In the warm, lofted air,

Soft lips together pressed,

Soft wispy hair,

She stops to rest,

And stops to breathe,

Amid the summer hum,

The great white lilac bloom

Scented with days to come.

Days 

Swift and subtle

The flying shuttle

Crosses the web

And fills the loom,

Leaving for range

Of choice or change

No time, no room. 

At Carmel Highlands 

Below the gardens and the darkening pines 

The living water sinks among the stones, 

Sinking yet foaming till the snowy tones 

Merge with the fog drawn landward in dim lines. 

The cloud dissolves among the flowering vines, 

And now the definite mountain-side disowns 

The fluid world, the immeasurable zones. 

Then white oblivion swallows all designs. 

But still the rich confusion of the sea, 

Unceasing voice, sombre and solacing, 

Rises through veils of silence past the trees; 

In restless repetition bound, yet free, 

Wave after wave in deluge fresh releasing 

An ancient speech, hushed in tremendous ease.

Austerity

 From “Cold Hills”

I have lived so long

On the cold hills alone …

I loved the rock

And the lean pine trees,

Hated the life in the turfy meadow,

Hated the heavy, sensuous bees.

I have lived so long

Under the high monotony of starry skies,

I am so cased about

With the clean wind and the cold nights,

People will not let me in

To their warm gardens

Full of bees.

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