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Keeping Quiet

6/11/2020

2 Comments

 
Keeping Quiet
Now we will count to twelve
and we will all keep still.

For once on the face of the earth,
let’s not speak in any language;
let’s stop for one second,
and not move our arms so much.

It would be an exotic moment
without rush, without engines;
we would all be together
in a sudden strangeness.

Fisherman in the cold sea
would not harm whales
and the man gathering salt
would look at his hurt hands.

Those who prepare green wars,
wars with gas, wars with fire,
victories with no survivors,
would put on clean clothes
and walk about with their brothers
in the shade, doing nothing.

What I want should not be confused
with total inactivity.
Life is what it is about;
I want no truck with death.

If we were not so single-minded
about keeping our lives moving,
and for once could do nothing,
perhaps a huge silence
might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves with death.
Perhaps the earth can teach us
as when everything seems dead
and later proves to be alive.
Now I’ll count up to twelve
and you keep quiet and I will go.

From Extravagaria : A Bilingual Edition by Pablo Neruda, Alastair Reid (Translator)
(Noonday Press 2001)
Submitted by Rebecca McBride
 
2 Comments
joseph olejak
6/11/2020 06:39:48 pm

In a time of chronic noise and information overload with no wisdom attending it -- holding silence is a profoundly radical act

Reply
Bob Elmendorf
6/12/2020 12:01:59 pm

I notice that everyone is speeding up again, returning to their old ways of frantic and frenetic behavior, but I think of Rilke who holded up at castle Duino to write the elegies and out spilled the sonnets to Orpheus. He gradually reduced his correspondence and visitors until he could get in touch with his deeper self.

Reply



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    ​This blog was set up to post content of interest to Old Chatham Quaker members and attenders. Posts related to one's own personal spiritual journey, reports based on interviews with others, and reflections on Quaker-related topics are welcome. Posts by individuals are personal expressions and do not necessarily reflect those of the Meeting as a whole.
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