Auschwitz- Leon Felipe

i am just discovering Leon Felipe-it's hard to put it into shape on thge internet- as u can see- not much of his stuff has even been translated into english!!!

Auschwitz- Leon Felipe

i am just discovering the Spanish poet, Leon Felipe-it's hard to put it into shape on the internet- as u can see- not much of his stuff has even been translated into english!!!

Poem on Auschwitz by Leon Felipe

To all the Jews in the world, my friends, (my brethren)
Those infernal poets Dante, Blake, Rimbaud…
Let them speak quietly…Let them be silent!
Today
any inhabitant of these earth
understands more about hell
than those three bards together.

I know Dante is a gifted violinist…Ah, a great virtuoso!
But do not dare to attempt now,with your amazing stanzas
and perfect hendecasyllables,to frighten that Jewish boy who is standing there, extricated from his parents…

Alone
Alone!
Awaiting his turn
in the Auschwitz crematorium

.Dante… you descended to hell by the hand of Virgil (Oh Virgil, the “great cicerone”) and that Divine Comedy of yours
was an amusing adventure
of music and tourism.

This is something else… something else…How can I explain?
If you don’t have an imagination!

You… do not have an imagination,remember that in your “inferno”there is not a single child…
But that one over there…He is alone
Alone! Without cicerone…Waiting for the gates to a hell to opent that you, poor Florentine!
Could not even imagine.
This is something else… How can I explain?Look! This is a place where you can not play the violin
Here, the strings of every violin in the world get broken

Have you understood, Infernal Poets? Virgil, Dante, Blake, Rimbaud…
Speak quietly!Play your instruments quietly! Shht!...

Be quiet!!I am too a great virtuoso And have played many a time in hell…But now, here…I shatter my violin…

and keep silent.