something started in my soul,
fever or forgotten wings,
and I made my own way,
deciphering
that fire
~Pablo Neruda
For Poetry Friday, we consider the responsibility of poetry, the obligation of poets:
The Poet's Obligation
by Pablo Neruda
To whoever is not listening to the sea
this Friday morning, to whoever is cooped up
in house or office, factory or woman
or street or mine or harsh prison cell:
to him I come, and, without speaking or looking,
I arrive and open the door of his prison,
and a vibration starts up, vague and insistent,
a great fragment of thunder sets in motion
the rumble of the planet and the foam,
the raucous rivers of the ocean flood,
the star vibrates swiftly in its corona,
and the sea is beating, dying and continuing.
So, drawn on by my destiny,
I ceaselessly must listen to and keep
the sea's lamenting in my awareness,
I must feel the crash of the hard water
and gather it up in a perpetual cup
so that, wherever those in prison may be,
wherever they suffer the autumn's castigation,
I may be there with an errant wave,
I may move, passing through windows,
and hearing me, eyes will glance upward
saying, "How can I reach the sea?"
And I shall broadcast, saying nothing,
the starry echoes of the wave,
a breaking up of foam and of quicksand,
a rustling of salt withdrawing,
the grey cry of sea-birds on the coast.
So, through me, freedom and the sea
will make their answer to the shuttered heart.
translated by Alastair Reid
******************
A Word Edgewise has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Linda!
12 comments:
"starry echo of the sea" Oh, my goodness...this poem is beautiful. I have not read this one before. I need to go back to it and read it again. I love the title and how it connects the imagery of the poem to the work of the poet, the responsibility of the poet. This one is a wowser. Thank you!
Poetry as a key to opening the prison...poetry as freedom...YES. Thank you, Tabatha! xo
Thanks for sharing Neruda’s powerfully human poem— how words do and can heal and lift us! I just reread a poem I wrote styled after one of his poems and was wanting to read more of his words…
This is beautiful. I'm mesmerized by "the perpetual cup" -- and freedom.
Tabatha, Thank you for sharing this poem The author is new to me but the piece is very powerful. Like Patricia, I admire the use of the words "perpetual cup."
Neruda's poem is beautiful. Irene's poem almost echoes it with the power of the ocean to unfold us. Thanks for sharing this one!
Oh, this is such a gorgeous poem! I was just reading about Pablo Neruda and marveling over another line of his: "I want to do with you what/spring does with the cherry trees." There are so many amazing images and ideas intertwined so masterfully in this poem! Thanks for sharing.
The final lines of this poem are everything to me this morning. Aren't we all, in some way, searching for an "answer to the shuttered heart"? (I misread "shuttered" for "shattered" on my first read. But they both work, don't they?)
Oh! I've been thinking about doing a deep dive into Neruda soon and this post may have just pushed me over to making that decision. :)
This! "a breaking up of foam and of quicksand," I love Neruda.
"starry echoes of the wave" and "grey cry of the sea birds" - thanks for sharing this beautiful poem, Tabitha.
"and the sea is beating, dying and continuing." Swoon. Thank you for this.
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