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User Rating:
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6.4
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(127 votes)
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You've asked me what the lobster is weaving there with
his golden feet?
I reply, the ocean knows this.
You say, what is the ascidia waiting for in its transparent
bell? What is it waiting for?
I tell you it is waiting for time, like you.
You ask me whom the Macrocystis alga hugs in its arms?
Study, study it, at a certain hour, in a certain sea I know.
You question me about the wicked tusk of the narwhal,
and I reply by describing
how the sea unicorn with the harpoon in it dies.
You enquire about the kingfisher's feathers,
which tremble in the pure springs of the southern tides?
Or you've found in the cards a new question touching on
the crystal architecture
of the sea anemone, and you'll deal that to me now?
You want to understand the electric nature of the ocean
spines?
The armored stalactite that breaks as it walks?
The hook of the angler fish, the music stretched out
in the deep places like a thread in the water?
I want to tell you the ocean knows this, that life in its
jewel boxes
is endless as the sand, impossible to count, pure,
and among the blood-colored grapes time has made the
petal
hard and shiny, made the jellyfish full of light
and untied its knot, letting its musical threads fall
from a horn of plenty made of infinite mother-of-pearl.
I am nothing but the empty net which has gone on ahead
of human eyes, dead in those darknesses,
of fingers accustomed to the triangle, longitudes
on the timid globe of an orange.
I walked around as you do, investigating
the endless star,
and in my net, during the night, I woke up naked,
the only thing caught, a fish trapped inside the wind.
Translated by Robert Bly
Pablo Neruda
| Submitted Date |
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Monday, January 13, 2003 |
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Read poems about / on: fish, ocean, sea, star, music, nature, mother, water, wind, time, light, night, fishing, spring
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Comments about this poem (Enigmas
by
Pablo Neruda
) |
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Alex Webb (1/7/2009 6:08:00 PM)
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Fantastic. He is the only reason I would learn Spanish, and that would be to better understand his poems like this.
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Enoch John (6/18/2008 6:06:00 PM)
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With Enigmas, Neruda weaves a mysterious web of poetic syntax that only begins to underscore his genius.
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Marshall Spoto (8/3/2007 4:27:00 PM)
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I recently saw a 1991 movie 'Mindwalk' and wondered if this poem was used by actor John Heard in the movie.
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Gregory Collins (7/28/2007 9:07:00 AM)
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anyone get a chance see the mive mindwalk and listen to read aloud when the island becomes a continent again
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Jw Cy (7/13/2007 3:53:00 AM)
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the mysterious wonder of nature at its core. how we never cease to question in unraveling everything into its bits and end, just as I thought of this poem. lovely.
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john tiong chunghoo (7/1/2006 9:32:00 AM)
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yes, so true. this world is full of fascination.
all the creatures
god tries his best
to lay himself end to end
in a bid to groom another god
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