Posthegemonic Comments
Jon, thanks so much for linking back so I could find this post. I am really impressed with this reading -- it directly addresses what is so tempting to skim over, the problematics of the pedestal in most (and certainly most of Neruda's) love poetry, the author's finding 'his voice through her silence'.
petitpoussin, thanks!
I would translate the callas in the first line as "shut down". makes the whole poem less disturbing to me. maybe it's my wishful thinking.
Heh. I think it has disturbing undertones whichever way you look at it.
I'm intrigued by this very thorough exploration into "callarse," but I think equally important for this particular poem is an exploration into the subtle meanings of "gustarse."
Students who have both a colloquial and academic knowledge of Spanish know that "me gustas" has varied meanings. The most commonly heard meaning carries specific sexual connotations: the modern English equivalent might be "You turn me on." (On a personal note, "me gustas" was one of the first things my Spanish male friends taught me). Although literally the phrase means "you are pleasing to me," in daily life it's usually reserved for a romantic/sexual feeling.
From the translations of Neruda's poem that I've seen, this sexual sense is not captured at all. "I like you," "You please me"--the English equivalent just doesn't capture the "You make me really hot" connotation. Too bad. But then, it's always seemed to me that the linguistic subtleties of any poem are the first to be lost in translation.
Jessie, you're right of course about the contemporary meaning of "gustarse," and while I'm not 100% about the word's resonances in 1920s Chile, given the context I wouldn't be at all surprised if that meaning were prevalent here, too.
FWIW, the RAE has:
"4. intr. Dicho de una persona: Resultar atractiva a otra."
Hey Jon,
I am a native spanish speaker and I was looking for the english version of some of Neruda's poems and I became frustrated because like you wrote there are some really bad translations out there that distort the meaning of the poem. Personally, I would say "I like you when you are silent" because it is me gustas cuando callas and not me gusta cuando callas. And I don't believe it necessarily has some sexual connotations, I believe is like when you look at something apparently trivial in a way that only you understand and only one side of your lip curls up in a smile.
About the uncertainty, I believe that it comes from love being at the same time frightening and fascinating, like two forces fighting against each other.
PP, thanks for your comments. I certainly agree that the poem (and indeed, Veinte poemas as a whole) has much to say about the ambivalence of romantic and sexual attraction, "frightening and fascinating" at the same time.
But it's equally about the discovery or construction of a poetic voice that can articulate that ambivalence, and this is also what I wanted to emphasize.
"the shiver of uncertainty induced by the spectral presence of the woman who is invoked only to be despatched"?? But she is there all the time, her stillness allows the spectral presence of her absence/pain/death to appear, then the slightest material gesture/voice is a "happy event".
Makes me think of Björk's Hyperballad
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