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Mueller 18 “dedos / de música” which first gently lift a leaf, but then give “fuerza a los ríos” and nearly destroy the earth. Again, though, water is depicted as the saving force here, with “lluvia, / lluvia verde, / lluvia llena / de sueños” nurturing the natural world into growth and new life and inspiring the speaker to love. The very end of the poem reads not so differently from the end of “Entrada a la madera,” as the reader entreats the storm to “cuenta conmigo” and “muéstrame tu camino / para que a ti se junte y cante con tu canto / la decidida voz / tempestuosa de un hombre.” We return here to the relationship of the speaker and the subject-as-lover, again representing love of nature in a very physical, concrete way. But this relationship is complicated by the uncertain role that male and female will play in the uniting of their two voices. On the one hand, it could be an attempt at egalitarianism, with the male speaker suggesting that he will follow the path set out for him by the female storm. But it could also be read as an attempt to regain control over the storm, with his “decidida voz” taking precedence over the voice of the storm. Neruda further personifies water as a woman and a lover in the multi-part “Oceana,” published as part of Cantos Ceremoniales in 1961. This poem sees a return to the dependent narrator of Neruda’s much earlier work, as in “Poema 7,” who is interestingly positioned opposite not a human woman, but the sea herself, embodied as “Oceana,” a feminine adaptation of the masculine word for ocean, “océano.” Separated into eleven numbered sections, the poem seems to chronicle a story over the passage of time. The very first lines of the first segment situate the ocean in a human situation, calling her “Oceana nupcial.” By placing her “aquí a mi lado” shortly after calling her a bride, the narrator establishes an intimate relationship between the two, and subsequently
Mueller 19 enumerates a number of desires (“cántame,” “quiero oír,” “dame el vino secreto”). In the second section, the narrator establishes a past that is subsequently revisited throughout the poem. The repeated use of “entonces” (literally “then,” “back then,” or “in those days”) gives a background like that of a long relationship, but acknowledges that a time existed before the two were together. The narrator describes how he “perdí los días” (Section II), “fui gastando mi sonrisa y cayeron / uno a uno mis dientes en una caja de hierro” (Section IV), emphasizing the way his behavior has changed since getting to know Oceana and implying positive personal growth. His references later change to “desde entonces” (“from now on”) to describe future actions within the context of the relationship, as with “cántame con ojos de guitarra” and “suspírame con uvas de amatista” (Section VII). This implies an anticipated future for the relationship, an expectation which is upset at the conclusion of the poem. The narrator dreams of being “piedra marina,” so that the ocean can fully encompass him and he can surround himself in “olas ya desaparecidas, / mares que fallecieron con cántico y viajero” (Section VII). But in the very last stanza, the freedom of this ocean woman is reiterated, saying “al fin no vuelvas a tu piedra marina (presumably the narrator)…yo soy, Oceana, sólo alguien que te esperaba / en la torre de un faro que no existe” (Section XI). The narrator seems to acknowledge that the woman is entirely independent of his machinations, and that she need not return to him. He reiterates his devotion to her regardless of her feelings for him, but this behavior is again represented as futile, just like it was in Neruda’s much earlier poems. The last four lines also mark a departure from the abstraction of the rest of the poem with their surprising use of human physical characteristics. The “senos marinos bajo la luz nocturna” and
Page 1 and 2: Translating Neruda: Femininity and
Page 3 and 4: Mueller 3 work. As John Felstiner o
Page 5 and 6: Mueller 5 foreignizing method as
Page 7 and 8: these translations misrepresent and
Page 9 and 10: Nature and Femininity: Looking at N
Page 11 and 12: stanza, the speaker’s loneliness
Page 13 and 14: a human relationship. In “Entrada
Page 15 and 16: Mueller 15 social justice and equal
Page 17: Mueller 17 focus on the very real n
Page 21 and 22: Translation Analyses: Creating Neru
Page 23 and 24: Mueller 23 last hours of the day,
Page 25 and 26: Mueller 25 from the original two, a
Page 27 and 28: Mueller 27 Unlike the situation in
Page 29 and 30: Mueller 29 translators read the ger
Page 31 and 32: Mueller 31 consummation / of the co
Page 33 and 34: Mueller 33 as Neruda often moves fr
Page 35 and 36: Mueller 35 domesticates by creating
Page 37 and 38: Mueller 37 Hagen’s maintains the
Page 39 and 40: Appendix Table of Contents Poema 7,
Page 41 and 42: 7: Leaning into the evenings Mark E
Page 43 and 44: Inclinando en las tardes David Ossm
Page 45 and 46: Entrada a la madera Pablo Neruda, 1
Page 47 and 48: Entrance into wood Angel Flores, 19
Page 49 and 50: Entrance to Wood Donald D. Walsh, 1
Page 51 and 52: Ode to the onion Maria Jacketti, 19
Page 53 and 54: Ode to An onion Carlos Lozano, 1961
Page 55 and 56: Oda a la tormenta Pablo Neruda, 195
Page 57 and 58: Ode to the Storm Nathaniel Tarn, 19
Page 59 and 60: Oceana Pablo Neruda, 1961 I Oceana
Page 61 and 62: Ocean Lady Maria Jacketti, 1996 I O
Page 63 and 64: the empurpled splendor of the murex
Page 65 and 66: Mueller 65 Neruda, Pablo. "Ocean La

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