Poetry — Pablo Neruda

Poetry   — Pablo Neruda
And it was at that age...
Poetry arrived in search of me.
I don't know, I don't know where it came from,
from winter or a river.
I don't know how or when,
no, they were not voices,
they were not words, nor silence,
but from a street I was summoned,
from the branches of night,
abruptly from the others,
among violent fires
or returning alone,
there I was without a face
and it touched me.

I did not know what to say,
my mouth had no way with names
my eyes were blind,
and something started in my soul,
fever or forgotten wings,
and I made my own way,
deciphering that fire
and I wrote the first faint line,
faint, without substance,
pure nonsense,
pure wisdom
of someone who knows nothing,
and suddenly I saw the heavens unfastened and open,
planets,
palpitating planations,
shadow perforated,
riddled with arrows, fire and flowers,
the winding night, the universe.

And I, infinitesmal being,
drunk with the great starry void,
likeness, image of mystery,
I felt myself a pure part of the abyss,
I wheeled with the stars,
my heart broke free on the open sky.
—artwork by Josephine Wang © 2014