Neruda and Tagore

XVI

En mi cielo al crepúsculo/In My Sky at Twilight

This poem by Neruda is a paraphrase of the 30^th poem in The Gardener, a book of poetry by Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941).  Tagore was a Bengali poet, novelist, musician, painter, and playwright, who (surprise surprise) won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913.  He also penned the national anthem for two countries:  Jan Gana Mana (India) and Amar Shonar Bengla (Bangladesh).  He was known for his lyricism, colloquialism, naturalism, and contemplative style. 

Poem 30:  The Gardener

You are the evening cloud floating in the sky of my dreams.
I paint you and fashion you ever with my love longings.
You are my own, my own, Dweller in my endless dreams!

Your feet are rosy-red with the glow of my heart's desire,
Gleaner of my sunset songs!
Your lips are bitter-sweet with the taste of my wine of pain.
You are my own, my own, Dweller in my lonesome dreams!

With the shadow of my passion have I darkened your eyes, Haunter
of the depth of my gaze!
I have caught you and wrapt you, my love, in the net of my music.
You are my own, my own, Dweller in my deathless dreams!

  

In My Sky at Twightlight

In my sky at twilight you are like a cloud
and your form and colour are the way I love them.
You are mine, mine, woman with sweet lips
and in your life my infinite dreams live.

The lamp of my soul dyes your feet,
the sour wine is sweeter on your lips,
oh reaper of my evening song,
how solitary dreams believe you to be mine!

You are mine, mine, I go shouting it to the afternoon's
wind, and the wind hauls on my widowed voice.
Huntress of the depth of my eyes, your plunder
stills your nocturnal regard as though it were water.

You are taken in the net of my music, my love,
and my nets of music are wide as the sky.
My soul is born on the shore of your eyes of mourning.
In your eyes of mourning the land of dreams begin.

How I see this poem is an older man who has found a second chance at love with a younger woman.  “My sky a twilight” suggests a man near the end of his life, so does the image of sour wine, evening song, and widowed voice.

There is much personification of nature in this poem as well:  The sky, clouds, wind, the shore.

As usual we have a woman in the poem that the man possesses, but is also possessed by.  She is like a cloud in form and colour (white and fluffy?), with sweet lips, and eyes of mourning  Although she is captured in his net, the reader understands that she has power over him, as he describes her as a reaper, a huntress, a plunderer, and nocturnal.  The woman controls his dreams and the possibilities in his future just by being alive.  Awww, sweet.

Tagore chillin' with Gandhi

Keeping it real with Einstein