Pablo Neruda

Keep Quiet, and Listen; Silence Speaks!

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Last night
I begged the Wise One to tell me
the secret of the world.
Gently, gently, he whispered,
“Be quiet,
the secret cannot be spoken,
It is wrapped in silence.”

Rumi

I wonder if any of you, my dear friends, have noticed how this hurried pace of life is affecting us globally, with people rushing unconsciously, often unaware of their surroundings or the noise around them. It seems time is passing faster than it used to, and this perception isn’t related to age, contrary to some beliefs. In both modern and traditional contexts, we often overlook an essential aspect: silence. I particularly notice this when I step into the forest, pause, and listen quietly.

Silence holds significant value that is often overlooked in our noisy world. It creates a space for reflection, helping us process our thoughts and emotions without external distractions. During quiet moments, creativity can flourish, fostering deeper thinking and the development of new ideas. Additionally, silence can foster a sense of peace and calm. In a hectic environment, pausing to embrace silence can refresh the mind and spirit, ease stress, and sharpen decision-making. In conversations, silence can be powerful, as listening is a sign of intelligence. It enables thoughtful responses and promotes meaningful dialogue. By embracing silence, we can enhance our listening skills and better understand others. Ultimately, silence’s value is in its ability to connect us with ourselves and others, encouraging introspection and stronger relationships. Whether through meditation, nature, or solitude, embracing silence can enrich our lives in many ways.

After sharing a quote from Rumi, I would like to offer a poem by Pablo Neruda. I hope you enjoy them and might relish a moment of silence to cherish.

Keeping Quiet
By Pablo Neruda


Trans. Alastair Reid

Now we will count to twelve
And we will all keep still
for once on the face of the earth,
let’s not speak in any language;
let’s stop for a second,
and not move our arms so much.

It would be an exotic moment
without rush, without engines;
We would all be together
in a sudden strangeness.

Fishermen in the cold sea
would not harm whales
and the man gathering salt
would not look at his hurt hands.

Those who prepare for green wars,
wars with gas, wars with fire,
victories with no survivors,
would put on clean clothes
and walk about with their brothers
in the shade, doing nothing.

What I want should not be confused
with total inactivity.
Life is what it is about.
I want no truck with death.

If we were not so single-minded
about keeping our lives moving,
and for once could do nothing,
perhaps a huge silence
might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves
with death.
Perhaps the earth can teach us,
as when everything seems dead
and later proves to be alive.

Now I’ll count up to twelve.
And you keep quiet, and I will go.

Title image: Dreamscapes and nightmares by the artist R.S. Connett.

Thank you. Peace and Love.

A Collaborative Fusion of two Great Poets Exploring Human Curiosity. Could the answer lie in dreams?

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It’s a lovely day today, and it feels like summer is making one last bid to say goodbye. I was out in the garden, but not sunbathing – I had to mow the lawn! As tenants, these sorts of tasks are our responsibility.
And now, after giving the flat a good vacuum, I thought it was a good time to write a post.

Tomorrow is Leonard Cohen‘s birthday, and I thought it would be a great chance to celebrate with a poem by Pablo Neruda as a tribute.
The theme is human curiosity (the ‘Whys!’), how little we know, and, as Leonard Cohen suggests, why not stand on your own two feet and be your own individual?

There’s no doubt that they’re still alive, truly in our hearts, thanks to their lasting arts and wisdom.

Through a closed mouth, the flies enter
by Pablo Neruda:

Why, with those red flames at hand,
Are rubies so ready to burn?

Why does the heart of the topaz
reveal a yellow honeycomb?
Why does the rose amuse itself
by hanging the colour of its dreams?
Why does the emerald shiver
like a drowned submarine?

Why does the sky grow pale
under the June stars?
Where does the lizard’s tail
Get its fresh supply of paint?
Where is the underground fire
That revives the carnations?

Where does the salt acquire
The transparency of its glance?
Where did the coal sleep
That it awoke so dark?
And where, where does the tiger buy
Its stripes of mourning, its stripes of gold?

When did the jungle begin
to breathe its own perfume?
When did the pine tree realise
its own sweet-smelling consequence?
When did the lemons learn
The same laws as the sun?

When did smoke learn to fly?
When do roots converse?
What is water like in the stars?
Why is the scorpion poisonous?
Is the elephant benign?

What is the tortoise brooding on?
Where does shade withdraw to?
What song does the rain repeat?
When are the birds going to die?
And why should leaves be green?

What we know is so little,
and what we presume so much,
So slowly do we learn
that we ask questions, then die.
Better for us to keep our pride
for the city of the dead
on the day of the departed,
And there, when the wind blows through
the holes in your skull,
It will unveil to you such mysteries,
whispering the truth to you
through the spaces that were your ears.

I shall forever remember those days when Al and I closed many doors one after another to society, and by listening to Cohen’s songs, we immersed ourselves in our solitude.

Have a great time, everyone. 🙏💖🤗

Source: “Through a closed mouth the flies enter” from EXTRAVAGARIA by Pablo Neruda, translated by Alastair Reid. Copyright © 1958 Pablo Neruda and Fundación Pablo Neruda. Translation copyright © 1974 by Alastair Reid. Used by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux and Fundación Pablo Neruda.

I ask for silence! Pablo Neruda

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Remedios Varo: The Phenomenon

After my last post, I felt a little done, so I came across one of my drafts, which I thought would fit with that: living, dying, and growing again! I hope you will enjoy it.💖

PABLO NERUDA (DESIGN FOR TED)

Pablo Neruda – I ask for silence

From the book’s collection of poems

Now, leave me alone.
Now, get used to it without me.
I am going to close my eyes
And I only want five things,
five favourite roots.
One is endless love.
The second thing is to experience autumn.
I can’t be without the leaves
fly and return to earth.
The third thing is the grave winter,
the rain that I loved, the caress
of fire in the wild cold.
Fourthly, summer
round like a watermelon.
The fifth thing is your eyes,
My beloved Matilda,
I don’t want to sleep without your eyes,
I don’t want to live without you looking at me:
I change the spring
why you keep looking at me.
Friends, that’s all I want.
It’s almost nothing and almost everything.
Now if you want you can go.
I have lived so long that one day
they will have to forget me by force,
erasing myself from the slate:
my heart was endless.
But why do I ask for silence?
Don’t think I’m going to die:
The opposite happens to me:
It happens that I’m going to live.
It happens that I am and that I continue.
It will not be, then, but within
grain will grow from me,
first, the grains that break
the earth to see the light,
but Mother Earth is dark:
and inside me, I am dark:
I am like a fountain in whose waters
the night leaves its stars
and continues alone through the field.
It’s about how much I’ve lived
that I want to live as long.
I never felt so in harmony,
I have never had so many kisses.
Now, as always, it’s early.
The light flies with its bees.
Leave me alone with the day.
I ask permission to be born.

Aquí Me Quedo (I’ll stay here)

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Honestly, I wasn’t sure if I could write a second post this week, as I arrived Thursday late back home from the trip to Southern Germany, and I was almost flat after a long drive with many car crashes and some pile-ups (thank goodness we were just spectators in the traffic jam). Yet, I know a specific resistance within me calls for expressing my feelings for freedom and justice. Therefore, I decided to share some artwork from Victor Jara, one of my favourites in the matter of resistance, in company with another warrior, Pablo Nerud.

I discovered Victor Jara and his music in the early 1970s when Chile began its transition towards democracy. Following the fall of the Shah’s regime, I learned more about his work. Victor Jara was undoubtedly a legend, and I loved his music.
He composed music for Pablo Neruda’s poems. He performed at a ceremony honouring him when Neruda was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1972, so we have two masters of art here to speak about human rights!

By Rec79 – Own work

I am sharing this with you because there is a lot of talk about separatism in Iran at the moment, which is causing fear that Iran will be split up. However, this justification is baseless because all the people and ethnicities of Iran are united in seeking human rights and fair politics. Here, Pablo Neruda, through Victor Jara’s music and voice, says what it’s all about!

Aquí Me Quedo (I’ll stay here)

I do not want the country divided
Not even bled by seven knives
I want the light of Chile raised
About the new house built

I do not want the country divided
We all fit in my land
And those who believe they are prisoners
They go away with their melody

The rich have always been foreigners
Let them go to Miami with their aunts
I do not want the country divided
They go away with their melody

I do not want the country divided
We all fit in my land
I stay to sing with the workers
In this new history and geography

And in this song, one of his masterpieces, he humbly highlights the importance of rights and justice!

I do not sing for singing
Yo no canto por cantar

not even for having a good voice,
ni por tener buena voz,

I sing because the guitar
canto porque la guitarra

It makes sense and reason.
tiene sentido y razón.

It has a heart of earth
Tiene corazón de tierra

and dove wings,
y alas de palomita,

It’s like holy water
es como el agua bendita

holy glories and sorrows.
santigua glorias y penas.

This is where my song fits
Aquí se encajó mi canto

as Violeta said
como dijera Violeta

working guitar
guitarra trabajadora

with the smell of spring.
con olor a primavera.

It’s not a rich man’s guitar
Que no es guitarra de ricos

not anything that looks like
ni cosa que se parezca

my song is from the scaffolding
mi canto es de los andamios

to reach the stars,
para alcanzar las estrellas,

that the song has meaning
que el canto tiene sentido

when it beats in the veins
cuando palpita en las venas

of the one who will die singing
del que morirá cantando

the true truths,
las verdades verdaderas,

not fleeting flattery
no las lisonjas fugaces

nor foreign fame
ni las famas extranjeras

but the song of a market
sino el canto de una lonja

to the bottom of the earth.
hasta el fondo de la tierra.

That’s where everything comes
Ahí donde llega todo

and where it all begins
y donde todo comienza

I sing that it has been brave
canto que ha sido valiente

It will always be a new song.
siempre será canción nueva.

I wish you a happy Easter filled with leisure and joy. Stay safe and stay tuned. 💖🙏🌹💕💥🍷

With Her / Pablo Neruda

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The World Turns to Feminine.

And the story continues; the youths’ uprising moves on despite they were executed every cock crowing time: They will never surrender!

Artwork: Renato Guttuso

As hard as this weather is, wait for me 

“This time is difficult, wait for me:
we will live it out vividly.
give me your tiny hand:
let us rise up and suffer,
let us experience and rejoice.

We are once more the pair
who lived in bristling places,
in harsh nests in the rock.
This time is difficult, wait for me
with a basket, with a shovel,
with your shoes and your clothes.

Now, we need each other
not only for the carnations’ sake,
not only to look for honey:
we need our hands
to wash with and to make fire,
and just let the hard times dare
to challenge the infinity,

With four hands and four eyes.”
― Pablo Neruda

💖🌟🙏💕🌹

If You Forget Me!

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By Pablo Neruda

“I would like to bid farewell to the old year by sharing a great poem by Pablo Neruda since this is my last post for the year. I know that some of my friends share posts daily or a few even hourly, but I do not have that much free time. Therefore, I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy New Year’s Eve and a healthy new year.” Viva Freedom!🙏🤗💖

Benito Cerna, 1960 ~ Figurative painter

I want you to know
one thing.

You know how this is:
if I look
at the crystal moon, at the red branch
of the slow autumn at my window,
if I touch
near the fire
the impalpable ash
or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists,
aromas, light, metals,
were little boats
that sail
toward those isles of yours that wait for me.

Well, now,
if, little by little, you stop loving me
I shall stop loving you little by little.

If suddenly
you forget me
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.

If you think it long and mad,
the wind of banners
that passes through my life,
and you decide
to leave me at the shore
of the heart where I have roots,
remember
that on that day,
at that hour,
I shall lift my arms
and my roots will set off
to seek another land.

But
if each day,
each hour,
you feel that you are destined for me
with implacable sweetness,
if each day, a flower
climbs up to your lips to seek me,
ah, my love, ah, my own,
in me, all that fire is repeated,
in me, nothing is extinguished or forgotten,
my love feeds on your love, beloved,
and as long as you live, it will be in your arms
without leaving mine.