STAGE 3

Nevertheless, I thought there was a need of connection between Amitage’s poem and the previous scene on Sacco’s Somme Battle and Sorley’s poem.  So I decided to introduce some images taken from different periods in which families are watching television attentively. While these images appear on screen we are as well invited to see the news, which interestingly coincide with the locations that later will be mentioned in the poem (Belfast, Sirte, Langosteira and Olympiapark) as the winning ticket holders. That would represent the apparition of Media as a social improvement.  Supposedly, Media would facilitate communication throughout the world about what is going on outside the country and, therefore, much more concerned about real suffering. But at the same time, it would show human incapacity to reduce wars around the world and inhibition towards massive cruelty or human threats to the planet. By carefully observing the family images it is possible to see that all members seem to be aware of the war, they are attentively listening and watching television. But, without noticing it, they are involuntarily led to the National lottery results by the TV. That attitude clearly mirrors the capacity to forget the dimension of suffering produced by war. Switching from horror to fun unconsciously (war, money, battlefield, lottery, excitement, dead soldiers...) eliminates the attitude of reflection and careful thought that a society needs. Interestingly, the winning numbers that Armitage chooses for his poem are the dates of some of the most relevant wars in the 20th century (14, 18, 39, 44, 82 and 91). 

It is also worth mentioning the uncertainty that Armitage reveals when he mentions the number for the bonus ball: number two-thousand-and-some, being its meaning an indirect reference to the next war to come during the 21st century.

In the next lines you can read the two versions of the poem.

IT COULD BE YOU

Original English Version

We interrupt our live coverage of the War

for details of tonight’s National Lottery draw:

the winning numbers are fourteen, eighteen,

thirty-nine, forty-four, eighty-two, and ninety-one.

The bonus ball is number two-thousand-and-some.

A record jackpot pay-out will be shared between

winning ticket holders in Belfast, Aberdeen,

Milford Haven and East Acton. Now back to the action.

​

PODRIES SER TU

Catalan version

Interrompem la retransmissió de la Guerra en directe

per a saber sobre el sorteig de la loteria nacional d’aquesta nit:

Els nombres guanyadors són catorze, divuit,

trenta nou, quaranta quatre, vuitanta dos i noranta u.

La bola extra és el número dos mil i poc.

una grossa extraordinària es repartirà entre

els que tenen les paperetes a Belfast, Sirte,

Langosteira i Olimpiapark. Ara, tornem a l’acció.