Forming a Habit: Day 2

"Es tan corto el amor y tan largo el olvido."

- Love is so short and forgetting is so long.

Pablo Neruda "Tonight I Can Write" (Puedo Escribir), from Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair [Veinte Poemas de Amor y una Canción Desesperada] (1924), XX, trans. William Merwin [Penguin Classics, 1993, ISBN 0-140-18648-4] (p. 51)

"Quiero hacer contigo lo que la primavera hace con los cerezos."

- I want to do with you what spring does with cherry trees.

Pablo Neruda "Every Day You Play" (Juegas Todos las Días), from Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair [Veinte Poemas de Amor y una Canción Desesperada] (1924), XIV, trans. William Merwin [Penguin Classics, 1993,ISBN 0-140-18648-4] (p. 35)

I have fallen in love. A deep, soul-captivating, heart pounding, brain-tingling love. I don't know how I allowed all of these years of bilingual immersion education to pass without once coming across the work of Pablo Neruda. His name is more than familiar. I know who he is. But his work is completely foreign to me. And, yet, it is me. I now find it completely unacceptable that anyone live their life without Neruda's work being a part of it. This man and I would have been friends. Of this I am certain. He knows the thoughts of my heart, even the best kept ones. I am desperate now to own all of his works, in Spanish of course, because the Spanish language can do things to words that most people have never even dreamed of.

Poetry, imagery, metaphors; these things are sadly lacking when written in English. The English language simply does not have the capacity for beauty that Spanish can provide. In Spanish, each word has multiple meanings. But these meanings are colorful, and strong, and peaceful, and kind. Each word can be anything it dreams of being, can make the reader literally feel it's emotion, can paint a picture so vivid that the flower petals brush against your skin and you can sense it. So, imagine, if these excerpts speak so clearly and fluently and beautifully in English, imagine what they must be like in a language that can paint with unknown colors and sing at unheard pitches.

I realize that considering my degree in English, I should be less focused on Spanish. However, I studied the language of my heritage for 9 years in school. I wrote several poems in Spanish and always find it welcomes me when I choose to use it's vast resources. I studied English because I am more comfortable in the language, I was born into it, and grew up with it. It is more challenging to write well in English because the language does not offer so many options. Even writing this entry at times leaves me stopped, wondering what the perfect word would be, or how to best phrase my jumbled thoughts. Perhaps these quotes will inspire more than one day's worth of writing. I can't wait to find out.