Cosas curiosas de Waugh

Del volumen de Obras completas dedicado a la obra juvenil de Waugh:

-Su padre estaba obsesionado con las mujeres en bicicleta, como el protagonista de Mr. Loveday's Little Outing (p. xxix). Esto, si habéis leído el cuento, es gracioso o muestra de un humor muy retorcido.

-Las vacaciones de Navidad en el internado en 19191 duraban 33 días, más de un mes largo (cf. p. 161 n. 193 y p. 175 n. 226), del 19 de diciembre al 23 de enero.

-Tuvo de compañero de estudios a Sir Max Mallowan, arqueólogo y marido de Agatha Christie.

-El día de la Ascensión, 13 de mayo de 1920 se fueron de excursión desde Shoreham y acabaron en la Cartuja de Parkminster. Traduzco:

Todos los monjes llevaban hábitos muy atractivos. No podíamos ver mucho pero lo que vimos nos impresionó muchísimo. Dimos toda la vuelta andando y vimos las celdas, cada una con su jardín de tal modo que ninguna ventana llegase al mundo exterior ni tampoco los jardines de los demás. Te hacía sentirte como un excursionista y un ordinario. Por supuesto nos recordó a Dowson, Monjas de la Adoración Perpetua.

Este es el poema al que se refiere, de Ernest Dowson, Nuns of the Perpetual Adoration:

Calm, sad, secure; behind high convent walls,
These watch the sacred lamp, these watch and pray:
And it is one with them when evening falls,
And one with them the cold return of day.

These heed not time; their nights and days they make
Into a long, returning rosary,
Whereon their lives are threaded for Christ's sake;
Meekness and vigilance and chastity.

A vowed patrol, in silent companies,
Life-long they keep before the living Christ.
In the dim church, their prayers and penances
Are fragrant incense to the Sacrificed.

Outside, the world is wild and passionate;
Man's weary laughter and his sick despair
Entreat at their impenetrable gate:
They heed no voices in their dream of prayer.

They saw the glory of the world displayed;
They saw the bitter of it, and the sweet;
They knew the roses of the world should fade,
And be trod under by the hurrying feet.

Therefore they rather put away desire,
And crossed their hands and came to sanctuary
And veiled their heads and put on coarse attire:
Because their comeliness was vanity.

And there they rest; they have serene insight
Of the illuminating dawn to be:
Mary's sweet Star dispels for them the night,
The proper darkness of humanity.

Calm, sad, secure; with faces worn and mild:
Surely their choice of vigil is the best?
Yea! for our roses fade, the world is wild;
But there, beside the altar, there, is rest.