For the 2013 National Poetry Month Blog Tour hosted by Savvy Verse & Wit, I thought it would be fun to read some of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda’s work. I borrowed this very short collection, Love: Ten Poems by Pablo Neruda, from Serena, and it was a good place to start. These poems are from the movie Il Postino (The Postman), which I haven’t seen. (I wonder if I would have enjoyed them even more if I’d seen the movie?)
Neruda’s use of language is beautiful, with unforgettable lines like “Love is so short, forgetting is so long” from “Tonight I Can Write.” I especially love how this collection has the original Spanish on the left and the English translation on the right. Some of the poems felt a bit over my head but sounded nice when read aloud — but they sounded even better when read aloud in Spanish. I finished this collection thinking that I need to add Neruda to my poetry shelf!
Here’s my favorite poem from the collection:
Poetry
by Pablo Neruda, translated by Alastair ReidAnd it was at that age … Poetry arrived
in search of me. I don’t know, I don’t know where
it came from, from winter or a river.
I don’t know how or when,
no, they were not voices, they were not
words, nor silence,
but from a street I was summoned,
from the branches of night,
abruptly from the others,
among violent fires,
or returning alone,
there I was without a face
and it touched me.I did not know what to say, my mouth
had no way
with names,
my eyes were blind,
and something started in my soul,
fever or forgotten wings,
and I made my own way,
deciphering
that fire,
and I wrote the first faint line,
faint, without substance, pure
nonsense,
pure wisdom
of someone who knows nothing,
and suddenly I saw
the heavens
unfastened,
and open,
planets,
palpitating plantations,
shadow perforated,
riddled
with arrows, fire and flowers,
the winding night, the universeAnd I, infinitesimal being,
drunk with the great starry
void,
likeness, image of
mystery,
felt myself a pure part
of the abyss,
I wheeled with the stars,
my heart broke loose on the wind.
(pages 7, 9)
I love the idea of poetry as a being, seeking out the poet, how poetry is a calling, something that chooses the poet. And I love the idea that poetry is used to explain, describe, feel, experience, and find wisdom in the “big” things.
What do you think? What’s your favorite poem by Pablo Neruda?
Disclosure: I borrowed Love: Ten Poems from Serena. I am an Amazon associate.
© 2013 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.
Naida always have good Neruda poems on her site, but..names of them? Eh, all 🙂
LikeLike
Yes, I enjoy reading the ones Naida posts.
LikeLike
I saw Il Postino but so long ago, unless this is another movie altogether. I read a middle grade novel based on the life of Neruda and was touched by it.
LikeLike
Honestly, before this book, my only experience with Neruda was the poems Naida posts on the bookworm!
LikeLike
That’s practically the first poem by him I’ve read that isn’t x-rated! LOL
LikeLike
I knew there were some, Jill, but this one totally slipped my mind when you were chatting about him.
LikeLike
If the others in this collection were x-rated, then they really were over my head because I didn’t see it! I only read a few of them more than once, though.
LikeLike
I had part of Sonnet XVII read at my wedding 🙂
LikeLike
Will have to look that one up!
LikeLike
I think I’m in love! That’s a wonderful poem and captures so perfectly the heady intoxication of finding voice through the written word.
I have a volume of Neruda that I reach for occasionally.
Excellent post.
LikeLike
Thanks, Jane!
LikeLike
It does seem poetry would be more alluring in its original language.
LikeLike
Yes, so I was so thankful for all those years of Spanish in high school and college. 🙂
LikeLike
I fell in love with this poem from the first line, and then … when I got to the last line, I signed with gratefulness to have read it:
“I wheeled with the stars,
my heart broke loose on the wind.”
This is a book of poetry that I simply must have!
LikeLike
Glad I picked a poem that you enjoyed! This was the only one in the collection that I loved from start to finish. The others have some great lines here and there. I really want to read more of his work.
LikeLike
I just adored this collection and had to have it after I saw that movie! I like many of his poems, so I cannot pick one, though the one you cite here is among them.
And Naida always posts great Neruda!
LikeLike
I have to see the movie!
LikeLike
[…] April 17: Diary of an Eccentric […]
LikeLike
I have never been a fan of Neruda, and I think it’s because of reading the poems in translation. This one does have some interesting ideas. I particularly like the way he puts it about how poetry found him–it “arrived/in search of me”
LikeLike
This is the first time I’ve read Neruda. I was a little hesitant about this collection since it’s centered around a movie, but I enjoyed it for the most part. Will have to read more of his work though.
LikeLike
Very nice. I tweeted.
LikeLike
Thanks, Ella!
LikeLike
Wonderful post and poem, Anna! I was introduced to Pablo Neruda on Naida’s blog, the bookworm. I didn’t realize (or I forgot) that Neruda’s poems are in The Postman. Maybe I need to see the movie again!
LikeLike
Thanks, Suko! I really need to see the movie. And I love when Naida posts his poems, which is how I became interested in him.
LikeLike
Beautiful coverage about this book of poetry!!
LikeLike
Thanks, Staci!
LikeLike
Oh that is lovely! I did see Il Postino but it was so many years ago and I really can’t remember a thing about it other than that it was foreign and we liked it a lot.
LikeLike
I really am going to have to see it. Wonder if it’s on Netflix?
LikeLike
The movie is well worth seeing!
LikeLike
Yay!
LikeLike
[…] National Poetry Month: Pablo Neruda (diaryofaneccentric.wordpress.com) […]
LikeLike
[…] National Poetry Month: Pablo Neruda (diaryofaneccentric.wordpress.com) […]
LikeLike
[…] National Poetry Month: Pablo Neruda (diaryofaneccentric.wordpress.com) […]
LikeLike
[…] Sucks)47. Thalia @ Muses and Graces (The Cat of Bubastes)48. Yvann @ Reading With Tea (Silenced)49. Anna @ Diary of an Eccentric (Love: Ten Poems)50. Anna @ Diary of an Eccentric (The Clover […]
LikeLike
[…] National Poetry Month: Pablo Neruda (diaryofaneccentric.wordpress.com) […]
LikeLike
[…] of an Eccentric does an explication of a Neruda poem about poetry (April […]
LikeLike