"Your laughter"
Take bread away from me, if you wish,take air away, but
do not take from me your laughter.
Do not take away the rose,
the lance flower that you pluck,
the water that suddenly
bursts forth in joy,
the sudden wave
of silver born in you.
My struggle is harsh and I come back
with eyes tired
at times from having seen
the unchanging earth,
but when your laughter enters
it rises to the sky seeking me
and it opens for me all
the doors of life.
My love, in the darkest
hour your laughter
opens, and if suddenly
you see my blood staining
the stones of the street,
laugh, because your laughter
will be for my hands
like a fresh sword.
Next to the sea in the autumn,
your laughter must raise
its foamy cascade,
and in the spring, love,
I want your laughter like
the flower I was waiting for,
the blue flower, the rose
of my echoing country.
Laugh at the night,
at the day, at the moon,
laugh at the twisted
streets of the island,
laugh at this clumsy
boy who loves you,
but when I open
my eyes and close them,
when my steps go,
when my steps return,
deny me bread, air,
light, spring,
but never your laughter
for I would die.
Pablo Neruda
-- I am back again after numerous weeks of forgetting to post right after Sharon!! Thanks for the reminders Eugene and apologies as I have been caught up with the constraints of travelling and losing track of days. No excuses - here's Your Laughter - one of my favourite poems because historically it was the first ever poem I received from a boy :) I used to laugh a lot as a child.
I remembered it today as I was driving and heard the words "laughter the best medicine" and it evoked memories of the poem and the warm feelings that I get whenever I read it. Let me know your thoughts.
Sham
posted by Unknown at 9:28 AM
9 Comments:
Thanks, Sham. There's nothing like a good Neruda. :)
Eeeee. Am I the only one getting a morbid vibe here?
It's the kind of thing I'd expect an obssessive stalker to give his stalkee just before he kills himself. Right in front of her.
Rose. Lance.
This brings up the imagery of blood, piercing instruments. The literal combination is medieval and casts romanticism on his description of his tired eyes, the unchanging earth, his harsh struggle. A kind of tragic chivalry.
That he uses the metaphors of blood and cuts in the context of laughter as a “wave of silver born in you” implies that he knows that the laughing person is laughing AT him, in mockery.
Instead of finding salvation/relief (the reference to his hands and his darkest hour), he receives mocking laughter.
Yet he is so desperate for the attention that ...even mocking laughter is better than nothing.
That bit about wanting the laughter like the blue flower he’d been waiting for. Could he mean the periwinkle, a blue flower associated with death? Or a blue rose, which doesn’t exist in nature?
I dunno. I think it sounds really sad.
Yes, Spot, I think you have a point. There could be a dark edge to this poem, undeniably romantic that it is. Perhaps, there is a complexity of tone and voice at work.
As you pointed out, the redness in the imagery of both rose and blood are brought together as antithetical yet conjoined parts of both love and the heartfelt pain (suffering?), especially the latter with the image of blood spilled on the street. Also, the poem begins as a plea. expressed negatively "do not...", rounding off at the end on the same sad note.
Nevertheless, this poem's 'negativity' could also be taken as hyberbolic declarations from a lovelern guy to a woman who hasn't accepted him yet... courting her with his show of words.
"It's the kind of thing I'd expect an obssessive stalker to give his stalkee just before he kills himself. Right in front of her."
Haha, I wonder what Sham would think of that :-) But I agree, this poem has a tragic feel to it...
A dark, poignant poem... I like it! For how often on days that we feel discouraged the only thing that could rescue us is the sound of laughter?
Well since I am very much alive and kicking and the person who sent me thep poem is also very much alive but not so much kicking anymore - I think we both took at it it's face level!!
Sham, a literal interpreation is also nice. It suggests innocence, like how that boy romantically shared that poem with you. I must remember to try it some time with a girl. Haha.
Oh yes DI, I think that it's a nice poem to share with a girl... :-) Hopefully she won't think it too morbid!
bakwas
bakwas
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