Pablo Neruda's odes remain among his most beloved poems. Written during his middle life, they examine ordinary things, nouns, both concrete and abstract. Their common link is appreciation, something rarely celebrated in postmodern literature. While most of the poems in his first volume deal with concrete nouns, Neruda accepted the challenge of making the abstract come to life through using his own brand of imagism.
Ode to Hope
by Pablo Neruda
translated from the Spanish by Maria Jacketti
Oceanic dawn
at the center
of my life,
waves like grapes,
the sky's solitude,
you fill me
and flood
the complete sea,
the undiminished sky,
tempo
and space,
seafoam's
white batallions,
the orange earth,
the sun's
fiery waist
in agony,
so many gifts and talents,
birds soaring into their dreams,
and the sea, the sea,
suspended
aroma,
chorus of rich, resonant salt,
and meanwhile,
we men,
touch the water,
struggling
and hoping,
we touch the sea,
hoping.
And the waves tell the firm coast,
"Everything will be fulfilled."
Writing Lessons for Poets
The curious column-shaped form of Neruda's odes were no accident. Form truly followed function, as the poems appeared regularly in Chilean newspapers. Of course, few newspapers publish poetry today, but poets can still gain technique from the form. It is slim, and rather waterfall-like. The short lines allow for isolation of images. Above all, the short lines allow the reader to slow down and actually breathe along with the work.
Had the poet wanted to speed up his work, he would have never composed all his odes, using such brief lines. This becomes a trademark of Neruda's work with the form, much as Emily Dickinson revolutionized the use of the dash.
Images
The poem functions as a verbal painting, as the reader experiences "waves like grapes," and the "orange earth." Indeed, as with many of Neruda's odes, there is an interplay of the elements of earth, fire, water, and air.
The reader experience salt as "resonant," thus engaging the air element in this work. The sun, itself, is personified as suffering, perhaps witnessing the struggles of the humans whose lives it illuminates.
If one has never read another the Chilean bard's odes, perhaps it is difficult to get a sense of what Neruda is hoping for -- social equality – and even his own fractured vison of democracy. As a poet of the people, he is connecting their plight to sea and its power, dwarfing human abilities.
Ode to Hope is Concise
Odes, by definition, are long poems of praise. Yet who can define long? Most of Neruda's odes go on for pages. "Ode to Hope" is one of his shorter works. The brief form of the ode shows a lack of the characteristic luxuriance evident in others. The poem concludes with his fellow Chileans touching the ocean and feeling its promise. At the center of the poem, there is an "oceanic dawn" or beginning. Yet, the shorter form speaks to the poet's relative impatience with tyranny and need for change.
The final lines of the poetry suggest that justice will come through natural forces rather than political ones. Above all, the poem conveys nature as the source of inspiration for human hope.
Source:
"Ode to Hope" translated by Maria Jacketti from Neruda's Garden: An Anthology of Odes, translated by Maria Jacketti. Pittsburgh: Latin American Literary Review Press, 1995.
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Maria Jacketti - I have been a writer and writing teacher for nearly thirty years. My books in print include Neruda's Garden, Maremoto: Seaquake, ...
