Caleuche - travels in four hemispheres

Some cultural miscellany

Chilean folk tale

The Trail of the Crazy Gringo tells the story of "Mr. Tommy", an Englishman who has an encounter with "gold fever" in the mountains of the central part of the country.

A poem by Pablo Neruda

We were asked to translate this poem written by the beloved Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda, to be used as a reading in a wedding ceremony.

My darling, it is lovely to see
your small step
leaving its mark on my path
or to see your eyes
taking in all that I look at,
to see your face awaken
each day,
to dive
into the same
fragment
of shadow
each night.
It is beautiful
to see
the time
that runs
like the sea
against a single prow
with the shape of your breast and my chest,
and your feet and my hands.
Waves of time
pass through your profile,
the same ones that lash me
and burn me,
waves like the furious
bite of the cold
and waves like the seeds
of the tassel of wheat.
But
we are together,
we resist,
keeping
in our memory
perhaps,
black foam or red
wounds
that throbbed like lips or wings.
We go forth together
through streets and through islands,
under the broken violin
of the bursts of wind,
facing a powerful enemy,
simply together
a woman and a man.

II
THOSE
who have not felt each
day of the world
fall
over the double
mask of the ship,
not the salt but the time
not the shadow
but the naked step
of joy,
how will they be able to close
their eyes,
their solitary eyes and sleep?

I don't like
the house without a roof
the window without glass.
I don't like
the day without work,
nor the night without dreams.
I don't like
man
without woman
nor woman
without man.

Be brave
man or woman,
let nothing frighten you.
In some place
now
they are waiting for you.
Arise:
the light in the bells trembles,
the poppies are born,
you have
to live
and to knead your life
with clay and light.

If snow falls
on two heads
the warm heart of the house
is sweet.
If not,
on the outside, the wind
asks you:
where is the one
you loved?
and it pushes you, biting you, to look for her.
A woman is half a woman
and a man is half a man.
In half a house they live;
sleeping in half a bed.

I wish
that lives become joined
that kisses
until now unlit
ignite.
I am the good
matchmaker poet.
I have brides
for all men.
Every day I see
lonely women
who ask me for you.
I will see you wed, if you like
with the sister
of the siren queen of the islands.
Unfortunately, you cannot
marry the queen,
because she is waiting for me.
I will wed her myself.

Caleuche

Caleuche - travels in four hemispheres
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