2017 06 07 FAREWELL & TRIBUTE

Retire has come to me since thirty years

in University, teaching various subjects

ranging from Maths & Physics to Aesthetics,

from Facilities at a urban scale and those for buildings,

Composition and Morphoenergetics…

I must confess I have enjoyed a lot doing such things,

I must confess I have loved my pupils,

I now must say goodby to generations

not coming more to class, I´ll surely miss it;

in any case please forgive me my shortcomings.

I always keep in my heart the expectation

of meeting you again somewhere unattended

and ask about your life and your endeavors

and in which way you have applied the knowledge,

and more important if you have found your true being…

in the meantime I offer you a poem.

FROM A TEACHER TO STUDENTS: A TRIBUTE

Friends, some of you here are my pupils

and there are others that have been,

or will be in the future, with "bad luck";

allow me a few comments that I feel:

Albert Einstein had said that is "the school

the invention of old age to take revenge"...

from the accusation of continuous youth

which shows as in a mirror the contrast 

of life that is in bloom and ever young

and the relentless slaughter of the time.

As he who is the professor always finds

all courses, perpetual and renewed,

in front of him, standing by, the estate

always the same and vigorous of life

in twenty years of age the clock stopped,

with time unchanging mocking at his face

as in a bloodily reversed devil´s pact.

And is the painful contrast evident

of all the years passed in a breath,

that open sores of former joys forgotten,

the longing for what could have been,

the ride near the end and all its sins,

the final course which leads towards the death.

And in revenge of the hour-glass, professors

looking to spend their aging each year in front

of youth batches evergreen as an insult,

as a mocking laughter of the gods,

in retaliation I suppose, perhaps unconsciously,

they erect themselves as if a Cronus god

to devour flesh of generations new.

Overwhelming demands then are there raised

of work without limits or an end

which represent, I know, the many hours

stolen from the rest, and from sports,

going out with friends or else with the sweet love,

to travel round the world or just to lie

on the park in spring facing the sky

to see clouds drift by across the blue

quietly and ponder questions: what is life?,

what´s the destiny of all, and its arcana ...;

and try to find our own answers that no book

neither teachers or syllabus, can give;

that only each one alone and by himself

in direct insight might see if in silence

the mind is quieted, from common toils afar…

without "sword of Damocles" of handovers,

without the guilty conscience of the expenses

without the urgency for the next exercise,

of attendances, examinations, marks.

Society does not treat those youths as adults,

people who are already so by age,

as caged birds would be the fitting image,

or tamed creatures to jump the fences brought

of the Career, a steeplechase resembling so to say.

Yes, I know, there are other rewards

—of architecture I speak because I know—

the cause is neat and gives us information

in a wide variety of fields

and plus discovers the deep creative vein

that makes us equal to God "Great Architect".

And yet we see that in the scales unbalanced,

the other plate is there much overloaded

with the youth lost and with the extensive hours

and then more hours of never ending work.

And apart, of course of some outstanding master

luckily found at last —as one finds a rare bird—

and half a dozen teachers that are good

with something to offer that interesting sounds,

misunderstanding of much professor fool,

endure so much the egos and their whims,

treatment unfair of some frustrated despots,

or leaden weight of lecturers much gray.

It is also added the uncertainty in the present

of future work and money to be gained

that allows us to be at last independent,

being no more a burden to the family,

able to travel and go around the world,

to buy a sport car, and even a small house,

and found a home and have some children then,

(or perhaps that sounds already outmoded?).

A true vocation more than that of Saints

to stand in the gap is here necessary,

to overcome discouragement and "lows"

and not to throw the towel on the floor

given the example that we see on the street

of so many ignorant dumb scoundrels

that without knowledge and also without qualms

flourishes in business or thrives in politics.

So friends I understand you, I've had

more or less the same as any one around;

if anything serves, tell me of course with you,

because beyond the teacher and the student,

exams and marks, beyond assigned roles,

the human aspect must at the end prevail

I've passed that too, so I speak.

Above all: a generation can´t be lost

denying best fresh blood to the old crop rows

who have already given, and now dry,

deprived of sowing without the future seeds,

are just to be stubble and henceforth

outworn responses only from the past.

What a sin!; a treadmill around the neck,
then thrown into the sea, responsible deserve

for ruining roads for treading of the youth

by shortsightedness and selfishness so dumb,

the treasure of the future making waste!.

I regard it utterly intolerable, therefor 

tell me among the outraged in their ranks!.

© albertotrocóniz / 12

Text from: "AS I SEE IT"

Image from: "PHOTOFILTERED"

You can see the original in Spanish  HERE