Eleanor en el pueblo del cómo

Eleanor Rigby se pone la cara que guarda en un frasco junto a la puerta. Muere y es enterrada (importante el pasivo) junto con su nombre mientras que el padre McKenzie escribe un sermón que nadie escuchará y la canción se pregunta "who is it for?". El coro no da la respuesta, más bien de cuenta de una marcha continua de gente solitaria quienes, a demás, parecen regenerarse y seguir saliendo de quién sabe dónde. Curiosamente lo que capta mi atención inmediata en la letra de "Eleanor Rigby" (Lennon y McCartney, 1966)no es el estribillo ni la fuerza de la frase "all the lonely people" sino la falta de efecto y la consecuente intrascendencia descrita en los detalles cotidianos que tejen las vidas de los "personajes" (llamémosle así a Eleanor R. y al padre McKenzie). La muerte de Eleanor se hace equivalente a la imagen del padre zurciendo sus calcetines. Arriesgándome a sonar a una canción de Arjona, me parece que vivir o morir en el campo semántico de "Eleanor Rigby", dejan de ser verbos para convertirse en sustantivos. Este curioso hallazgo (personal y seguramente cuestionable) me recordó un poema de E.E. Cummings escrito veintiséis años antes. En "anyone lived in a pretty how town", Cummings altera la función gramatical de las palabras y las utiliza para enfatizar la misma -triste- ambigüedad de la composición beatleriana. Advierto que, teniendo una clara tendencia a mezclar códigos, me he atrevido a comparaciones aún más radicales que la que aquí presento; con eso en mente, espero no ofender a nadie al transcribir el poema completo de Cummings.

anyone lived in a pretty how town
(with up so floating many bells down)
spring summer autumn winter
he sang his didn't he danced his did

Women and men(both little and small)
cared for anyone not at all
they sowed their isn't they reaped their same
sun moon stars rain

children guessed(but only a few
and down they forgot as up they grew
autumn winter spring summer)
that noone loved him more by more

when by now and tree by leaf
she laughed his joy she cried his grief
bird by snow and stir by still
anyone's any was all to her

someones married their everyones
laughed their cryings and did their dance
(sleep wake hope and then)they
said their nevers they slept their dream

stars rain sun moon
(and only the snow can begin to explain
how children are apt to forget to remember
with up so floating many bells down)

one day anyone died i guess
(and noone stooped to kiss his face)
busy folk buried them side by side
little by little and was by was

all by all and deep by deep
and more by more they dream their sleep
noone and anyone earth by april
wish by spirit and if by yes.

Women and men(both dong and ding)
summer autumn winter spring
reaped their sowing and went their came
sun moon stars rain