A U.K. first edition, hand-set by Virginia Woolf for Hogarth Press, which she and her husband, Leonard, had created to publish her writing (Photo from The Guardian, August 20 2013)
I. The Burial of the Dead I. O Enterro dos Mortos
April is the cruellest month, breeding Abril é o mais cruel dos meses, germina
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Lilases da terra morta, mistura
Memory and desire, stirring Memória e desejo, aviva
Dull roots with spring rain. Agônicas raízes com a chuva da primavera.
Winter kept us warm, covering O inverno nos agasalhava, envolvendo
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding A terra em neve deslembrada, nutrindo
A little life with dried tubers. Com secos tubérculos o que ainda restava de vida.
(Tradução: Ivan Junqueira)
The opening of T.S. Eliot's poem of five sections subverts the first lines of Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, in which Chaucer describes April as a restorative month with its April showers bringing nature back to life.
Chaucer wrote his stories in the 14th century and Eliot, an American living in England, in the 20th century amid the ruins of World War I.
Yet, even without knowing the allusion to Chaucer, Eliot's introduction is powerful as is the rest of the poem. Other literary references are present throughout The Waste Land.
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