Friday, April 24, 2009

I am air





“I copy out mountains, rivers, clouds.
I take my pen from pocket. I note down
a bird in its rising
or a spider in its little silkworks.
Nothing else crosses my mind. I am air,
clear air, where the wheat is waving,
where a bird's flight moves me, the uncertain
fall of a leaf, the globular
eye of a fish unmoving in the lake,
the statues sailing in the clouds,
the intricate variations of the rain.

Nothing else crosses my mind except
the transparency of summer. I sing only of the wind,
and history passes in its carriage,
collecting its shrouds and medals,
and passes, and all I feel is rivers.
I stay alone with the spring.”

-From “Pastoral” by Nobel Prize winning Chilean poet Pablo Neruda (1904-1973)


Thank you, Karen Suzy

Photo taken at Forks of the River Wildlife Management Area


4 comments:

Abhishek said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Abhishek said...

Today's post reminded me of the poem I read in my primary school 'Basanti Hawa'. That was written in Hindi but meant somewhat the same. That use to be my fav. poem... It still is, and today when I read your blog it reminded me of the poem and those lovely school days. Time flies by pretty fast ..Isn't it. It feels as if it was just yesterday when I read that poem though it has been more than 15 years.

I still remember some lines from the poem ... ‘Hawa hoon hawa main , basanti hawa hoon, suno baat meri,anokhi hawa hoon' (I am the breeze heralding Spring – listen to my ‘unheard of' ways)

Stephen Thank you so much for reminding me of those beautiful days.

Love your blog

Stephen Lyn Bales said...

Hello Aby.

I have the day off. And it's a lovely spring day with a gentle breeze: spring air. I'm sitting outside with my laptop. Oak catkins are falling all around me.

Thank you for the comment. I went on-line and found a copy of the poem "Basanti Hawa" but as you said, it's in Hindu and I could not read it. The text itself is very beautiful and orderly. What is it called?

Stephen Lyn Bales said...

"Hawa hoon hawa main , basanti hawa hoon, suno baat meri,anokhi hawa hoon" (I am the breeze heralding Spring – listen to my ‘unheard of' ways)

Beautiful in any language, as is spring air.