Poem by Pablo Neruda ‘Die slowly’
Poetry is beauty. As every kind of art, it has its own language to communicate every aspect of the life. As a greek poem says about the poetry ”Maybe all the poems written since the beginning of the world
A magical world, sensitive and powerful. In these terms, I want to share a poem by Pablo Neruda.
Die slowly
He who becomes the slave of habit,
who follows the same routes every day,
who never changes pace,
who does not risk and change the color of his clothes,
who does not speak and does not experience,
dies slowly.
He or she who shuns passion,
who prefers black on white,
dotting ones “it’s” rather than a bundle of emotions, the kind that make your eyes glimmer,
that turn a yawn into a smile,
that make the heart pound in the face of mistakes and feelings,
dies slowly.
He or she who does not turn things topsy-turvy,
who is unhappy at work,
who does not risk certainty for uncertainty,
to thus follow a dream,
those who do not forego sound advice at least once in their lives,
die slowly.
He who does not travel, who does not read,
who does not listen to music,
who does not find grace in himself,
she who does not find grace in herself,
dies slowly.
He who slowly destroys his own self-esteem,
who does not allow himself to be helped,
who spends days on end complaining about his own bad luck, about the rain that never stops,
dies slowly.
He or she who abandon a project before starting it, who fail to ask questions on subjects he doesn’t know, he or she who don’t reply when they are asked something they do know,
die slowly.
Let’s try and avoid death in small doses,
reminding oneself that being alive requires an effort far greater than the simple fact of breathing.
Only a burning patience will lead
to the attainment of a splendid happiness.”
Pablo Neruda, better known by his pen name, the real name was Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto(12/07/1904-23/09/1973). He was a Chilean poet and writer involved with politics. He started to write poems from a very early age and he is considered to be one of the most important poets of 20th century in Latin America. Neruda occupied many diplomatic positions in various countries during his lifetime and served a term as a Senator for the Chilean Communist Party. When President Gabriel Videla outlawed communism in Chile in 1948, a warrant was issued for Neruda’s arrest. He lived in Argentina and Europe from 1948-1952, but after the dictatorship, he returned in Chile. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971.
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