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. 💖🙏🌹💕💥🍷