WEBVTT

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The hardest poem to translate in
this book is the smallest poem.

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I'm going to read it, too.

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But I have to tell you
why it was so hard, first.

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And it's because he uses
in it a vernacular that

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was used for only about 10
years in Chile, from like 1945

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to 1955.

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And so none of my friends--

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my Chilean friends-- had
any idea what was going on.

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And even, like, older poets
my age-- really old poets--

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like, Raúl Zurita, I asked him
and he said, well, you know,

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Neruda is just
being crazy Neruda.

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So it's a poem--

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a love poem to his wife's
ear-- to Matilda's ears.

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She had nice ears.

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[LAUGHTER]

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But it gets really weird.

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So it starts out, he's
talking about her ear.

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And then he goes, he says--

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Yo no hablo de la
pequeña oreja, más amada,

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hecha tal vez de nácar
amasado con harina de rosa--

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So it's like ear,
ear, ear, lover's ear.

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And then he says, I'm not
talking about that little ear,

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most love--

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most loved, made of
most loved of nacre--

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the nacreous layer
inside shells--

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nacre, that shiny stuff, mixed
with rose flower, and kneaded.

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And it's, like, what?

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What's going on?

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Like, he's cooking
up his wife's ear.

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[LAUGHTER]

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But then, finally,
someone's grandmother

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revealed that, for this little
while, near the seashore,

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abalone was called [SPANISH],,
the little ears of the sea,

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abalone.

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Hence this translation.

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"Marvelous ear, double
butterfly, hear your praise.

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I'm not thinking of
abalone, little ears

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of the sea, most
prized, perhaps,

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of nature's gift,
kneaded with rose flower.

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No, I want to revere your ear."

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[LAUGHTER]