Sublime Blue: Selected Early Odes by Pablo Neruda by Pablo Neruda Read Free Book Online

canto, en un hombre,
    coral, gregario eres,
    y cuando menos, mutuo.
    A veces
    te nutres de recuerdos
    mortales,
    en tu ola
    vamos de tumba en tumba,
    picapedrero de sepulcro helado,
    y lloramos
    lágrimas transitorias,
    pero
    tu hermoso
    traje de primavera
    es diferente,
    el corazón sube a las ramas,
    el viento mueve el día,
    nada queda

Ode to Wine
    Wine the color of day,
    color of night,
    wine with purple feet
    or topaz blood,
    wine,
    star-child
    of earth,
    wine smooth
    as a golden sword,
    gentle
    as rumpled velvet,
    encased in the swirl-shell
    of snail,
    amorous, marine,
    there’s never room for you in one cup,
    one song, one man;
    you are choral, gregarious,
    reciprocal, to say the least.
    At times
    you feed on deadly
    memories,
    and on your wave
    we go from grave to grave,
    carver of an icy sepulcher,
    and we weep
    our transitory tears,
    but
    your beautiful
    spring dress
    is quite another matter,
    heart rises through the limbs,
    wind moves the day,
    nothing remains
    dentro de tu alma inmóvil.
    El vino
    mueve la primavera,
    crece como una planta la alegría,
    caen muros,
    peñascos,
    se cierran los abismos,
    nace el canto.
    Oh tú, jarra de vino, en el desierto
    con la sabrosa que amo,
    dijo el viejo poeta.
    Que el cántaro de vino
    al beso del amor sume su beso.
    Amor mio, de pronto
    tu cadera
    es la curva colmada
    de la copa,
    tu pecho es el racimo,
    la luz del alcohol tu cabellera,
    las uvas tus pezones,
    tu ombligo sello puro
    estampado en tu vientre de vasija,
    y tu amor la cascada
    de vino inextinguible,
    la claridad que cae en mis sentidos,
    el esplendor terrestre de la vida.
    Pero no sólo amor,
    beso quemante
    o corazón quemado
    eres, vino de vida,
    sino
    amistad de los seres, transparencia,
    coro de disciplina,
    abundancia de flores.
    in your stilled soul.
    Wine
    stirs spring,
    swells like vegetal joy,
    walls fall back
    and great stones,
    chasms are sealed
    as song is born.
    The ancient poet said,
    Oh you, jug of wine, in the wilderness,
    and I with my sweetheart, my beloved.
    Thus does the flowing wine
    add to the kiss of love
    a kiss of its own.
    My love, your hip
    suddenly
    is the brimming curve
    of the wine glass,
    your breast is the cluster,
    your long tresses luminous with spirits,
    your nipples the grapes,
    your navel the virgin seal stamped
    upon the vessel of your belly,
    and your love is the cascade
    of inextinguishable wine,
    the clarity that illuminates my senses,
    the terrestrial splendor of life.
    But you are not only love,
    the sear of a kiss
    or the blazing heart,
    more than the wine of life,
    for you are also the companionship
    of essences, transparency,
    the choir of discipline,
    the multitudinous flowers.
    Amo sobre una mesa,
    cuando se habla,
    la luz de una botella
    de inteligente vino.
    Que lo beban,
    que recuerden en cada
    gota de oro
    o copa de topacio
    o cuchara de púrpura
    que trabajó el otoño
    hasta llenar de vino las vasijas
    y aprenda el hombre oscuro,
    en el ceremonial de su negocio,
    a recordar la tierra y sus deberes,
    a propagar el cántico del fruto.
    I love it when at table,
    where we are talking,
    the brilliance from a bottle
    of vintner’s genius flashes forth.
    Drink,
    and remember in each
    drop of gold
    or cup of topaz
    or spoonful of purple
    how autumn worked
    to fill the vessels with wine,
    and through the rituals of his concerns
    let the unsung man learn
    how to remember the earth and his obligations,
    how to propagate the canticle of the grape.

About the Translator
    W illiam Pitt Root’s numerous poetry collections include
The Storm and Other Poems, Reasons For Pitt Root.
Honors accorded his poetry, which appears in
The Atlantic, New Yorker, The Nation,
and
Poetry,
include grants from the Rockefeller and Guggenheim Foundations, and the National Endowment for the Arts; a Stegner Fellowship at Stanford and a United States/United Kingdom Exchange Artist Fellowship. Root’s work, published in twenty languages, has won the