Tuesday, September 30, 2008

shameless

But so beautiful.



So That You Will Hear Me
By Pablo Neruda

So that you will hear me
my words
sometimes grow thin
as the tracks of the gulls on the beaches.

Necklace, drunken bell
for your hands smooth as grapes.

And I watch my words from a long way off.
They are more yours than mine.
They climb on my old suffering like ivy.

It climbs the same way on damp walls.
You are to blame for this cruel sport.
They are fleeing from my dark lair.
You fill everything, you fill everything.

Before you they peopled the solitude that you occupy,
and they are more used to my sadness than you are.

Now I want them to say what I want to say to you
to make you hear as I want you to hear me.

The wind of anguish still hauls on them as usual.
Sometimes hurricanes of dreams still knock them over.
You listen to other voices in my painful voice.

Lament of old mouths, blood of old supplications.
Love me, companion. Don't forsake me. Follow me.
Follow me, companion, on this wave of anguish.

But my words become stained with your love.
You occupy everything, you occupy everything.

I am making them into an endless necklace
for your white hands, smooth as grapes.





Full text including the original can be found here.

5 comments:

Becky Montoya Wright said...

I haven't explored too far through your blog--just the more recent stuff. I suspect you are also a poet. Thanks for your kind words of my most recent piece. It means more than you can possibly know.

Day said...

You're welcome; it's a great piece, totally deserved it. Anyone who hasn't yet, whose reading this, should go read it.

In terms of my own poetry, I think I'm more of a wanton exhibitionist with a decent sense of timing. . . but that's ok. :)

Makayla Steiner said...

That is a really lovely poem. If you haven't read Neruda's Nobel speech, I think you'd like it.

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/
literature/laureates/1971/
neruda-lecture-e.html

Day said...

I tried the link and couldn't find any actual speech. .

Makayla Steiner said...

Hm. Try going to nobelprize.org, and then search Pablo Neruda. It should bring up a page with his picture and links to his Nobel lecture, his biographical info, and his banquet speech. The lecture is the one I liked.