Soneto XI - Pablo Neruda

Tengo hambre de tu boca, de tu voz, de tu pelo
y por las calles voy sin nutrirme, callado,
no me sostiene el pan, el alba me desquicia,
busco el sonido líquido de tus pies en el día.

Estoy hambriento de tu risa resbalada,
de tus manos color de furioso granero,
tengo hambre de la pálida piedra de tus uñas,
quiero comer tu piel como una intacta almendra.

Quiero comer el rayo quemado en tu hermosura,
la nariz soberana del arrogante rostro,
quiero comer la sombra fugaz de tus pestañas

y hambriento vengo y voy olfateando el crepúsculo
buscándote, buscando tu corazón caliente
como un puma en la soledad de Quitratúe.

–

I crave your mouth, your voice, your hair.
Silent and starving, I prowl through the streets.
Bread does not nourish me, dawn disrupts me, all day
I hunt for the liquid measure of your steps.

I hunger for your sleek laugh,
your hands the color of a savage harvest,
hunger for the pale stones of your fingernails,
I want to eat your skin like a whole almond.

I want to eat the sunbeam flaring in your lovely body,
the sovereign nose of your arrogant face,
I want to eat the fleeting shade of your lashes,

and I pace around hungry, sniffing the twilight,
hunting for you, for your hot heart,
like a puma in the barrens of Quitratue.

(not sure who did this translation)

–

I am hungry of your mouth, your voice, your hair
and by the streets I go without nourishing itself,
shut up, does not maintain the bread to me, the dawn disturbs,
I look for the liquid sound to me of your feet in the day.

I am hungry of your laughter slide,
of your hands color of furious barn,
am hungry of the pale stone of your nails,
I want to eat your skin like an intact almond.

I want to eat the ray burned in your hermosura,
the sovereign nose of the arrogant face,
want to eat the fleeting shade of your eyelashes

and hungry I come and I am smelling the twilight buscándote,
looking for your hot heart
like puma in the solitude of Quitratúe.

(ahhh, Babelfish…)

… and lava, and java, and guava, and brava, and kava. It’s kind of suprising how many things rhyme with bava, if you think about it. Of course, “bava” may not technically be a word (Dictionary.com doesn’t recognize it), so I may be cheating. But just maybe.

First, my abject apologizies for my sloth-ee bloggerness lately. I’m a mean and horrible person and should be divested of all my joys and successes. Or perhaps you’ll simply say, “Meh, whatever, I just read this sheit ’cause I get bored at work,” and I can happilly move along with my life, and all its little joys and successes can remain intact. Your call, folks. My eternal well-being is now in your hands. Be gentle.

So why have I been so reticent, of late? I blame it on the entire female gender, but could probably narrow it down to one woman in particular, if I really put an effort into it. Which I won’t. So, really it all started with Eve (if you go for that “Garden of Eden” creation thing), and the problem just sort of ballooned from there. And honestly, this whole “female gender” problem, or rather, this one woman who takes up all my time, is entirely worth every second, and I’m having the best time. Ever. So, really, I don’t regret for a minute (maybe 43 seconds or so, though) my blog-slackitude. Rest assured that if there were 96 hours in each day, I would most certainly devote at least 2 of them entirely to blogging, as I really do enjoy it quite a bit. As there are only 24 in each day, I end up with 2 hours every 4 days, and that will just have to do. For now.

But I’ve been loving writing the micro-fiction every week. I hope you have been enjoying reading them. I spoke with my friend Joseph, who’s the most prolifically creative person I know, and he may start submitting some micros, and get some friends in on it as well, so we may get quite the creative upswing soon in that department. I’m quite excited. Quite.

In other news, we had our poker night last night. Since I had to be at work by 8 this morning, I wasn’t too excited about playing for long, and thus was the first to get knocked out. If you’re not feeling poker, you’ll lose. This seems to be a logical fact. Anyway, our friend Adam brought some home brew over, and we listened to some good music, and had our guy’s night and rollicked (very manly rollicking, mind you) and it was good. I took a metric snapton of photos, and glancing at them this morning, some turned out pretty good, so I’ll throw some up here as soon as I get the opportunity.

Finally, and this is also a reason I’ve been a bit too busy to blog, I applied for a new job as a “Community Library Assistant I” at the Timberland Library in Yelm. It’s a bit of a drive, but the job is full-time with benefits and decent if not stupendous pay, so I think it will be fully worth it. More importantly, it seems like a really solid position where I could learn a lot and get some very valuable experience. It was an internal-only posting in the Timberland system, and I fit the qualifications well, so it’s time to cross those fingers again and see what happens. I figure that if Theo got his new job (which he did), then I can get mine.

Have fun kickin’ it oldschool. You know I am.