Song of a Reformed Headhunter

finding neruda's water glasses by the light of lemons

I read Sonnet XVIII on the train, and fell in love with it straightaway. It sings of ancient mountains and quarrels. It shoots the arrows of beauty into the heart. My overly literal translation follows the original. I'm learning Spanish, and would be glad to get some tips. XVIII Por las montañas vas como viene la brisa o la corriente brusca que baja de la nieve o bien tu cabellera palpitante confirma los altos ornamentos del sol en la espersura. Toda la luz del Cáucaso cae sobre tu cuerpo como en una pequeña vasija interminable en que el agua se cambia de vestido y de canto a cada movimiento transparente del río. Por los montes el viejo camino de guerreros y abajo enfurecida brilla como una espada el agua entre murallas de manos minerales, hasta que tú recibes de los bosques de pronto el ramo o el relámpago de unas flores azules y la insólita flecha de un aroma salvaje. XVIII Through the mountains you move as the breeze moves, or the brisk stream falling from the snows, your fine h...

Pablo Neruda dedicated Cien sonetos de amor ( One Hundred Love Sonnets ) to his wife Matilde Urrutia, and in his dedication he wrote of how their life in the fishing village of Isla Negra (85 kilometers south of Valparaiso, Chile) inspired these sonnets: When I set this task for myself, I knew very well that down the right sides of sonnets, with elegant discriminating taste, poets of all times have arranged rhymes that sound like silver, or crystal, or cannonfire. But—with great humility—I made these sonnets out of wood; I gave them the sound of that opaque pure substance, and that is how they should reach your ears. Walking in forests or on beaches, along hidden lakes, in latitudes sprinkled with ashes, you and I have picked up pieces of pure bark, pieces of wood subject to the comings and goings of water and the weather. Out of such softened relics, then, with hatchet, and machete and pocketknife, I built up these lumber piles of love, and with fourteen boards each I built little ho...