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My dog has died.
I buried him in the garden
next to a rusted old machine.
Some day I'll join him right there,
but now he's gone with his shaggy coat,
his bad manners and his cold nose,
and I, the materialist, who never believed
in any promised heaven in the sky
for any human being,
I believe in a heaven I'll never enter.
Yes, I believe in a heaven for all dogdom
where my dog waits for my arrival
waving his fan-like tail in friendship.
Ai, I'll not speak of sadness here on earth,
of having lost a companion
who was never servile.
His friendship for me, like that of a porcupine
withholding its authority,
was the friendship of a star, aloof,
with no more intimacy than was called for,
with no exaggerations:
he never climbed all over my clothes
filling me full of his hair or his mange,
he never rubbed up against my knee
like other dogs obsessed with sex.
No, my dog used to gaze at me,
paying me the attention I need,
the attention required
to make a vain person like me understand
that, being a dog, he was wasting time,
but, with those eyes so much purer than mine,
he'd keep on gazing at me
with a look that reserved for me alone
all his sweet and shaggy life,
always near me, never troubling me,
and asking nothing.
Ai, how many times have I envied his tail
as we walked together on the shores of the sea
in the lonely winter of Isla Negra
where the wintering birds filled the sky
and my hairy dog was jumping about
full of the voltage of the sea's movement:
my wandering dog, sniffing away
with his golden tail held high,
face to face with the ocean's spray.
Joyful, joyful, joyful,
as only dogs know how to be happy
with only the autonomy
of their shameless spirit.
There are no good-byes for my dog who has died,
and we don't now and never did lie to each other.
So now he's gone and I buried him,
and that's all there is to it.
Translated, from the Spanish, by Alfred Yankauer
Pablo Neruda
Read poems about / on: dog, believe, sex, heaven, sea, lonely, ocean, winter, sky, star, together, happy, hair, lost, alone
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Click here to write your comments about this poem (A Dog Has Died by Pablo Neruda)
Jorge Pena (3/7/2008 11:18:00 AM)
When I was seven year old my dog was poisoned and I cried a lot. Today when I am 53 year old, reading this beautiful poem I started to cry again.
Thanks Neruda. |
Naveed Akram (2/6/2008 5:55:00 PM)
The corner of his eye is understanding the dog as his own and his friend, but one he had and witnessed with his pleasure, a definite helper, a cool guy, and a replacement. To complete the poem is certainly to make the dog a lengthy elegy. It is not one for the human or humans in his life - it is for the dog!
It is heavenly, and it is carrying the story of an exemplary animal. It should be repeated in these words, and much is desired of the dog. By the audience of the poet, it reigns supreme over all animals. |
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