STAGE 4

After having heard the results of the National Lottery, we come back to the war and we continue to observe Sacco’s illustrations. But this time, the poem we have access to is Wilfred Owen’s 'Anthem for doomed youth'. It clearly pays tribute to the lost lives in the battlefield, and creates a deep poetic discourse that reflects human incapacity to remember and consider them as individuals who passed away because of the war.

ANTHEM FOR DOOMED YOUTH

Original English Version

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?

— Only the monstrous anger of the guns.

Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle

Can patter out their hasty orisons.

No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;

Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,—

The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;

And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?

Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes

Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.

The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;

Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,

And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

The Poems of Wilfred Owen, edited by Jon Stallworthy

HIMNE A LA JOVENTUT COMDEMNADA

Catalan Translation

Tocaran les campanes per aquells que moren com a bestiar?

Solament la ràbia monstruosa dels canons

el tartamudeig precipitat dels fusells

poden resar-los una breu pregària.

Per a ells, ja no més cerimònies, oracions ni campanes

ni veus de dol o salves en cors,

Solament l'agut, rabiós gemec de cors d'obusos

i clarins cridant-los des dels sofrents comtats.

Quins canelobres poden encendre's per a ells?

No a les seues mans d'infants sinó en els seus ulls

brillarà la sagrada llum dels adéus.

La pàl·lida mirada de les joves seran les seues mortalles

Les seues ofrenes, la tendresa de dolguts records

i cada lent capvespre s'inclinarà davant les seues memòries

MUSIC

Finally, in order to unify the whole work, I decided to look for music able to create an acoustic atmosphere that made easier the understanding of the message:

• First part (Charles Sorley): Marimba Concerto from Emmanuel Séjourné. The atmosphere it creates really recalls a thought of isolation and death.

• Live broadcast (Simon Armitage): radio music. This music is taken randomly from YouTube radio tuning in order to create an abrupt contrast between the first and the last poems and simulate the News Summary typical acoustic tone.

• Final part (Wilfred Owen): Requiem, W.A. Mozart. I found Mozart’s requiem fit very well in this section. It reveals the impossibility to find the perfect pray for the dead soldiers, but at the same time we are hearing choirs and religious prays in Mozart’s music. Be it as it may, I think Wolfang’s work really transmits the feeling of loneliness and death that Owen wanted to share with the reader.