This post is especially for Cindy Ducar’s Spanish class, so you guys can see what you think about analyzing poetry in Spanish. Let me know what you think!
“Ahora mismo, en vivo de Alcalá de Henares, en este momento de 2012, os presento La Reina de Poesía: Maripoesía leyendo un poema de Pablo Neruda!” (Right now, live in Alcalá, in this moment of 2012, I present to you the queen of poetry, Maripoesía, reading a poem by Pablo Neruda!)
He's a very distinguished-looking poet, isn't he? His poems are so romantic..I'm a little bit in love.
My friend AliciaKae introduced me, and everyone jumped out of their seat applauding. It was a very dramatic reading. There were tears. There was laughter. It was truly a poetry slam.
Ok, so maybe I’m making some of that up (even though I did perform the poem like a true previous speech team member). And maybe our professor, Elena, is a little intense, with all the papers we have to write. But I must say, I have learned quite a bit about poetry from this class than I ever knew before. This Tuesday especially. We had to apply everything we learned from class and analyze a piece of poetry to present to our class.
“Querríamos..Pablo Neruda!” I said when she first asked us which poet we would present on. (We want Pablo Neruda!) What I knew about him: He was from Chile, wrote love poems and my friend Becca Steciew saw his house when she studied abroad in Santiago.
So, we picked a random poem and decided to start the project three days before it was due. Bad idea. It took us at least 10 hours to figure out what the poem means, even though we had a fun time trying to figure it out. Here’s the poem. It’s in Spanish.
Hemos perdido aun
Hemos perdido aun este crepúsculo (twilight)
Nadie nos vio esta tarde con las manos unidas
mientras la noche azul caía sobre el mundo.
He visto desde mi ventana
la fiesta del poniente (sunset) en los cerros lejanos (far away).
A veces como una moneda (money)
se encendía un pedazo de sol (piece of sun) entre mis manos.
Yo te recordaba con el alma apretada (clenched)
de esa tristeza que tú me conoces.
Entonces, dónde estabas?
Entre qué gentes?
Diciendo qué palabras?
Por qué se me vendrá todo el amor de golpe (all of a sudden)
cuando me siento triste, y te siento lejana?
Cayó el libro que siempre se toma en el crepúsculo,
y como un perro herido rodó (rolls) a mis pies mi capa.
Siempre, siempre te alejas en las tardes
hacia donde el crepúsculo corre borrando estatuas.
¿Qué significa? what does it mean?
My friend Becca took this picture of one of Neruda's homes when she was studying in Chile.
Este poema habla de la perdida del amor. Neruda quiere expresar la futilidad del amor, como el crepúsculo y cualquier cosa en la vida que tiene que terminar. Eventualmente el amor va a desaparecer, aunque hay esperanza porque con cada día nueva viene el poniente. (This poem talks about the loss of love. Neruda wants to express the futility of love, like the twighlight and any other thing in life that has to end. Eventully love will disappear, although there is hope, because with each new day comes the sunrise.)Cada día empieza nueva. Una oportunidad para aprovechar cualquier cosa que quieres hacer. Cuando decidas a hacer algo, comprometéselo. Este finde, me he quedado en casa en vez de viajar. Me encanta cada momento. Los momentos de paz a veces son los mejores momentos a aprender de si misma y pensar. (Every day is always a new beginning. A new opportunity to take advantage and get the most out of whatever you decide to do. And when you decide to do something, committ to it. This weekend I stayed home instead of traveling. And I am loving every moment of it. The quiet times are sometimes the best moments to learn about yourself and think.)And to write poetry. Because I have decided that someday, along with singing opera and acting in the theatre, I will also write poetry. If you want to hear Neruda reading his poetry click here. If you want to hear me reading his poetry, well, you will just have to buy a plane ticket to Spain.
life in alcalá 