Cuerpo de mujer, blancas colinas, muslos blancos,
te pareces al mundo en tu actitud de entrega.
Mi cuerpo de labriego salvaje te socava
y hace saltar al hijo del fondo de la tierra.
Fui sólo como un túnel. De mí huían los pájaros,
y en mí la noche entraba en su invasión poderosa.
Para sobrevivirme te forjé como un arma,
como una flecha en mi arco, como una piedra en mi honda.
Pero cae la hora de la venganza, y te amo.
Cuerpo de piel, de musgo, de leche ávida y firme.
¡Ah los vasos del pecho! ¡Ah los ojos de ausencia!
¡Ah las rosas del pubis! ¡ Ah tu voz lenta y triste!
Cuerpo de mujer mía, persistiré en tu gracia.
Mi sed, mi ansia sin límite, mi camino indeciso!
Oscuros cauces donde la sed eterna sigue,
y la fatiga sigue y el dolor infinito
Pablo Neruda
2 comments:
I love Pablo Neruda. I own the book from which this poem comes and 4 other books of his. I wonder if you have seen the film "Il Postino" in which Neruda figures prominently as a kind of mythical character or read the novel "House of Spirits by Isabel Allende in which he figures historically as "The Poet" in Chile.
Body of a Woman
Body of woman, white hills, white thighs,
you look yourself like a world in your attitude of surrender.
My rough peasant's body digs in you
and makes the son leap from the depths of the earth.
I was alone like a tunnel. The birds fled from me
and the night enveloped me with its crushing invasion.
To survive myself I forged to you like a weapon,
like an arrow in my bow, like a stone in my sling.
But the hour of vengeance falls, and I love you.
Body of skin, of moss, of eager and firm milk.
Ah those goblets of the chest! Ah those eyes of absence!
Ah the roses of the pubis! Ah your voice slow and sad!
Body of my woman, I will persist in your grace.
My thirst, my unbounded desire, my uncertain road!
Dark river-beds where the eternal thirst follows,
and tiredness follows, and the infinite ache.
Twenty Love poems and a song of despair - Pablo Neruda, 1924
Oh yes, I do have that DVD on my book case. I love the movie and I love his poems. His poems are extremely sensual, but not shallow and perverse. I don't own any of his books though. I read his poems on the internet, but would love to hold a collection of poems in my hands one day.
Thank you for the English translation.
I have written something similar about a man - how I see a man and the body and soul of a man I deeply cherish - not men in general
Post a Comment