How to typeset a two column parallel poem?

Question

I got this double column poem written by some friends that is meant to be typeset with the stanzas in parallel. Here is a sample:

Tiempos en pausa.                                                          Tiempo.
Pausa que como hoyo negro se traga todo.                                   Pausa que como hoyo negro
Todo al mismo tiempo traga y al mismo tiempo vacía.                        todo
Vacío que abrasa y abraza.                                                 vacía y
Abrazo que devora y a su vez escupe y devuelve.                            abraza.

I think the verse environment would not support this multi column arrangement. And the paracol may be a little of an overshoot, as it needs to be instructed to jump from one column to the next every time. Is there a more sensible solution?

Maybe a tabularx with two columns? – Bernard Aug 04 '20 at 19:49 — Bernard, Aug 04 '20 at 19:49

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 04 '20 at 23:46

Okey, it seems that paracol did the trick reasonably well. I guess it was only matter of typing in an orderly manner the verses!

\begin{document}
\begin{paracol}{2}
\poemtitle{Tiempos en pausa.}
  \switchcolumn
  \poemtitle{Tiempo.}
  \switchcolumn
\begin{verse}
   \textbf{Pausa que como hoyo negro} se traga todo. \
  \textbf{Todo} al mismo tiempo traga y al mismo tiempo vacía. \
  \textbf{Vacío} que abrasa y abraza. \
  \textbf{Abrazo} que devora y a su vez escupe y devuelve. \
  \end{verse}
\switchcolumn
  \begin{verse}
Pausa que como hoyo negro \
  todo \
  vacía y \
  abraza. \
\end{verse}
\switchcolumn

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 18 '22 at 12:22

Maybe worth checking out: the bidipackage, originally designed to help with documents interchanging between LTR and RTL blocks, offers an environment called traditionalpoem. I tried this real quick and it seems that it is generally usable for your question. Here comes a quick & dirty solution, possibly someone can still improve upon this.

\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{bidipoem}
\usepackage[landscape=true]{geometry}
\begin{document}
\begin{traditionalpoem}
    Tiempos en pausa.&

    Tiempo.\
Pausa que como hoyo negro se traga todo.&amp;                                   
Pausa que como hoyo negro\\
Todo al mismo tiempo traga y al mismo tiempo vacía.&amp;                        
todo\\
Vacío que abrasa y abraza.&amp;                                                 
vacía y\\
Abrazo que devora y a su vez escupe y devuelve.&amp;                            
abraza.

\end{traditionalpoem}
\end{document}

Further information on the package is scarce, but maybe have a look over here too.

How to typeset a two column parallel poem?

2 Answers2

Linked