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Secular or Eclectic
20th Century

About Pablo Neruda

Timeline (1904 - 1973)

Pablo Neruda, Pablo Neruda poetry, Secular or Eclectic, Secular or Eclectic poetry,  poetry, [TRADITION SUB2] poetry,  poetry

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English version by
Alistair Reed

Original Language
Spanish

The Poet's Obligation

Themes
  Birds
  Dawn
  Freedom
  Heart
  Pain and Wounding

 

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 >>

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.

 

 

 

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Ivan M. Granger's original poetry, stories and commentaries are Copyright © 2002 - 2008 by Ivan M. Granger.
All other material is copyrighted by the respective authors, translators and/or publishers.