A poem about Eros

Las dudas de Eros

Montale: los limones fulgentes, entrevistos

en un patio de invierno:

le trombe d´oro della solaritá.

No quiero más palabras para eros.

Dejadlo mudo: no crezca su lengua.

No ciego: vea, cante y aprenda con los ojos.

No le des más palabras.

Si lo metes en cartas, en versos o en susurros

de alta noche,

lo desangras,

lo pudres, lo embalsamas.

No tenga voz, y viva

Como los limoneros de Montale.

Aurora Luque, Camaradas de Ícaro, Madrid: Visor Libros, 2003.

In this poem Aurora Luque,a Spanish poet and Classicist, speaks about the necessity to silence Eros, love.

I think that this poem is what we need now, a day after “the day of love” which turned out to be the day when we talk about love or the day when capitalism hopes to increase its revenue exploiting love.

So, against my better judgment and usual practice I´ll translate the poem for those who do not speak Spanish— or don´t like Google translate.

The doubts of Eros

Montale: the lemons brilliant, hazy

in a winter garden:

le trombe d’ oro della solaritá.

I don’t want more words for eros.

Let him be mute: do not let his tongue grow.

Not blind: let him see, sing and learn with the eyes.

Don’t give him more words.

If you put him in cards, in verse or in whispers

of elevated nights,

you bleed him dry,

you rot him, you embalm him.

Let him not have a voice and live

Like the admired lemon trees of Montale.  

As a comparatist I have to mention that Eugenio Montale to whom Luque refers to is an Italian Nobel prize winner who wrote the poem Lemons which you can find translated in English here.

Also, as I read it, I remembered Shakespeare’s “Speak low if you speak love” from the play Much Ado about Nothing Act 2 Scene 1. 

Luque seems to disagree with the Bard, or if she doesn’t disagree she points out that we’ve exhausted everything there is to say about eros. 

 

What do you think?