It's been years since I've done any cycling. My husband rode in the Haiti years, but that was just a bit much for me. But now, in our new home, we are cycling together again. On a tandem. I'm in the middle of a very busy day, and have no time for more bicycling information right now. Maybe another time. But I didn't want to miss Poetry Friday today.
I was wondering last night whether Pablo Neruda wrote an ode to bicycles. Well, of course he did. Everything I found online uses the same translation, but nobody identifies who did it. This poem isn't in any of my three Neruda books.
Here are some lines from the middle:
A few bicycles
passed me by,
the only
insects
in
that dry
moment of summer,
silent,
swift,
translucent;
they
barely stirred
the air.
Here's the rest, or you could look here for the text in Spanish and English.
Kathryn Apel has today's roundup!
7 comments:
Hadn't seen that ode -- is there anything Neruda hasn't written about? Thanks!
I feel like I learn something new about you with every post, Ruth! Thanks for sharing these lines...
Imagining you on a tandem bike (and what a beauty it is!) with your husband is the picture I want to carry into my new week. Enjoy! And thank-you for this whisper-soft swish of a poem.
Wow that bike has character, glad you are able to kiss the wind a bit with it! Thanks for the Neruda poem, I especially liked the stanza with these lines,
"their eyes
to summer,
their heads to the sky,
sitting on the
hard
beetle backs
of the whirling
bicycles
that whirred
as they rode by
bridges, rosebushes, brambles
and midday."
Happy Belated Birthday Greetings–sounds like it was swonderful!!!
Oh Ruth, that 3 person bicycle! I cannot imagine riding it. What an ode to RE-beginnings this post is. Thanks for popping in. Keep peddling!
Linda, it's only for two! <3
I love Neruda's personification of bicycles! Especially
"only moving
does it have a soul,"
I can't wait for bicycle season to start here! First we need a March snow or two..
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