Thursday, April 8, 2010

'the ocean'


‘It’s not the wave with its salty weight
that grinds against the coasts and manufactures
the peaceful bands of sand that ring the world:
it is the central volume of your strength,
the ever-extending power of your waters,
the still solitude brimming with lives.
Time, perhaps, or overflowing cup
of all known motion, a pure oneness
that death has never sealed, green viscera
of blazing absolute totality.

Of the sunken arm that throws up a drop of water
nothing remains but a kiss of salt. Of the bodies
of mankind along your shores a misty scent
of wet flowers is all that lasts. Your energy
seems to slip away without ever being exhausted,
it seems to circle back into the calm.’


by Pablo Neruda (passage from The Ocean)