The Soldiers in the Garden
Isla Negra, Chile, September 1973
After the coup,
the soldiers appeared
in Neruda’s garden one night,
raising lanterns to interrogate the trees,
cursing at the rocks that tripped them.
From the bedroom window
they could have been
the conquistadores of drowned galleons,
back from the sea to finish
plundering the coast.
The poet was dying;
cancer flashed through his body
and left him rolling in the bed to kill the flames.
Still, when the lieutenant stormed upstairs,
Neruda faced him and said:
There is only one danger for you here: poetry.
The lieutenant brought his helmet to his chest,
apologized to señor Neruda
and squeezed himself back down the stairs.
The lanterns dissolved one by one from the trees.
For thirty years
we have been searching
for another incantation
to make the soldiers
vanish from the garden.
Martín Espada,
Isla Negra, Chile, September 1973
After the coup,
the soldiers appeared
in Neruda’s garden one night,
raising lanterns to interrogate the trees,
cursing at the rocks that tripped them.
From the bedroom window
they could have been
the conquistadores of drowned galleons,
back from the sea to finish
plundering the coast.
The poet was dying;
cancer flashed through his body
and left him rolling in the bed to kill the flames.
Still, when the lieutenant stormed upstairs,
Neruda faced him and said:
There is only one danger for you here: poetry.
The lieutenant brought his helmet to his chest,
apologized to señor Neruda
and squeezed himself back down the stairs.
The lanterns dissolved one by one from the trees.
For thirty years
we have been searching
for another incantation
to make the soldiers
vanish from the garden.
Martín Espada,
fra The Republic of Poetry (Norton, 2006)
*
*
3 kommentarer:
Flott poesi og stark!
Min ven LarsNordström som er både forfatter, poet og vinodlare i Oregon var for någre år sedan i Chile og besökte bl a Nerudas hem og museum. Jeg fick en del fine bilde fra stedet, vid Stille Havet.
Du kan lese litt om Lars på - hjemside og vingårdsside via lenk på bloggen min. Han er en av mine beste venner.
Har vent på dagen fordi jeg har haft behandlinger og min dygnsrytm er litt blitt bare tull.
Inkan, takk for tipset om Lars Nordstrøm - spennende! Heier på deg - den behandlingen er f... så tøff (en understatement!) - og kjenner meg veldig godt igjen i det med døgnrytmen :)
Legg inn en kommentar