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Poetry

Pablo Neruda, Pablo Neruda poetry, Secular or Eclectic, Secular or Eclectic poetry,  poetry, [TRADITION SUB2] poetry,  poetry by Pablo Neruda
(1904 - 1973) Timeline

English version by
Anthony Kerrigan

Original Language
Spanish

Secular or Eclectic
20th Century

And 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 planations,
shadow perforated,
riddled
with arrows, fire and flowers,
the winding night, the universe.

And I, infinitesimal being,
drunk with the great starry
void,
likeness, image of
mystery,
I felt myself a pure part
of the abyss,
I wheeled with the stars,
my heart broke free on the open sky.

 

 

-- from Pablo Neruda: Selected Poems, by Pablo Neruda / Translated by Anthony Kerrigan

Amazon.com

 


/ Photo by fazen /

Themes

  Fire
  Freedom
  Garden
  Heart
  Lotus


Recommended Books


100 Love Sonnets, by Pablo Neruda / Translated by Stephen Tapscott
The Book of Questions, by Pablo Neruda / Translated by William O'Daly
Canto General, by Pablo Neruda / Translated by Jack Schmitt
The Captain's Verses, by Pablo Neruda / Translated by Donald D. Walsh
The Essential Neruda: Selected Poems, by Pablo Neruda / Translated by John Felstiner

More >>

 

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Commentary by Ivan M. Granger

And it was at that age... Poetry arrived
in search of me.


The autobiography of a poet and his art.

and something started in my soul,
fever or forgotten wings,
and I made my own way,
deciphering
that fire


I especially like the perfectly simple way he describes how the purest art comes through when the artist steps aside:

there I was without a face
and it touched me.


After reading this poem, I have nothing much to add, except that I think I'll read it again.

I wheeled with the stars,
my heart broke free on the open sky.

 

 


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