neruda’s turtle

Here’s one of my favorite poems by Don Pablo Neruda. I like it because of the character in the poem which is, of course, a turtle. The metaphor of the turtle tells us a lot about life. Here’s The Turtle by Pablo Neruda translated by Jodey Bateman.

The Turtle

The turtle who
walked so long
and saw so much
with
his
ancient
eyes,
the turtle
who ate
olives
from the deepest
sea,
the turtle who swam
for seven centuries
and knew
seven
thousand
springtimes,
the turtle
hooded
against
the heat
and  cold,
against
sunrays and waves,
the yellow
turtle
plated
with severe
amber
scales
and feet for catching prey,
the turtle
stopped
here
to sleep
and didn’t know it.
So old
that he kept
getting harder,
he quit
loving the waves
and became rigid
like a clothing iron.
He closed
the eyes which
had defied
so much
sea, sky, time and earth,
and went to sleep
among the other
stones.
 

the night they called me pablo

Here’s Pablo Neruda’s Tonight I Can Write The Saddest Lines which is the poem that I recited during the second Sinews and Syllables last February 29:

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

Write for example, ‘The night is shattered
and the blue stars shiver in the distance.’

The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.

Through nights like this one I held her in my arms.
I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.

She loved me, sometimes I loved her too.
How could one not have loved her great still eyes.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her.

To hear immense night, still more immense without her.
And the verse falls to the soul like dew to a pasture.

What does it matter that my love could not keep her.
The night is shattered and she is not with me.

This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the distance.
My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

My sight searches for her as though to go to her.
My heart looks for her, and she is not with me.

The same night whitening the same trees.
We, of that time, are no longer the same.

I no longer love her, that’s certain, but how I loved her.
My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.

Another’s. She will be another’s. Like my kisses before.
Her voice. Her bright body. Her infinite eyes.

I no longer love her, that’s certain, but maybe I love her.
Love is short, forgetting is so long.

Because through nights like this one I held her in my arms
my soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.
Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer
and these the last verses that I write for her.

That’s probably one of the saddest love poems I have ever experienced. And I had the honor of performing it! However I sure do wish I wouldn’t be feeling the exact feeling of the poem, of being left alone by the one you really love. I would really want to recite it in it’s Spanish version. I really do LOVE romantic languages! I wish I could learn all of them, from Spanish, Portuguese to French! I don’t know if Quenya and Sindarin (from LOTR) are romantic, but I want to learn them, too! Here’s the poem ala Espagnol:

Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche.

Escribir, por ejemplo: “La noche está estrellada,
y tiritan, azules, los astros, a lo lejos”.

El viento de la noche gira en el cielo y canta.

Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche.
Yo la quise, y a veces ella también me quiso.

En las noches como ésta la tuve entre mis brazos.
La besé tantas veces bajo el cielo infinito.

Ella me quiso, a veces yo también la quería.
Cómo no haber amado sus grandes ojos fijos.

Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche.
Pensar que no la tengo. Sentir que la he perdido.

Oir la noche inmensa, más inmensa sin ella.
Y el verso cae al alma como al pasto el rocío.

Qué importa que mi amor no pudiera guardarla.
La noche está estrellada y ella no está conmigo.

Eso es todo. A lo lejos alguien canta. A lo lejos.
Mi alma no se contenta con haberla perdido.

Como para acercarla mi mirada la busca.
Mi corazón la busca, y ella no está conmigo.

La misma noche que hace blanquear los mismos árboles.
Nosotros, los de entonces, ya no somos los mismos.

Ya no la quiero, es cierto, pero cuánto la quise.
Mi voz buscaba el viento para tocar su oído.

De otro. Será de otro. Como antes de mis besos.
Su voz, su cuerpo claro. Sus ojos infinitos.

Ya no la quiero, es cierto, pero tal vez la quiero.
Es tan corto el amor, y es tan largo el olvido.

Porque en noches como ésta la tuve entre mis brazos,
mi alma no se contenta con haberla perdido.

Aunque éste sea el último dolor que ella me causa,
y éstos sean los últimos versos que yo le escribo.

sinews and syllables

Just yesterday, the BAEnglish (Creative Writing) students presented “Connect and Disconnect”, a Sinews and Syllables Presentation. The event was a series of performance of selected BAE students. They interpreted the poems and other works with proffesional choreography led by Creative Writing Faculty Jean Claire Dy and John Bengan.

The works of great writers were featured. Christina Rosetti’s No, Thank You, John was performed with a gothic impact by my blockmate Ella. When The Light Appears by Allen Ginsberg was performed with contemporized music by Darsi and Allen. I was tasked to recite Pablo Neruda’s Tonight I Can Write The Saddest Lines. Those were only few of the several great works presented. Some of the pieces performed were created by the very own CW students in the BAE program.

Congratulations to us for a successful presentation. I’d like to mention the Food Committee for preparing such a good meal (pansit bihon with loaf bread, drinks: juice in tetra packs). Below, you can see April holding me. She caught me sneaking some food.

A small get-together was held at Mintal with some of the performers and faculty members exchanging toasts of beer. No, I remained sober with my big Pop Cola with me. It’s actually my first time to sit and talk with BAE people in that manner. And I actually found myself enjoying intellectual yet crazy conversations with them.

The night (or should I say morning) ended with a couple of burgers from Minute Burger.