World Literature

“I love adventurous
books,
books of forest or snow,
depth or sky
but hate
the spider book
in which thought
has laid poisonous wires
to trap the juvenile
and circling fly.”

In this part of Pablo Neruda’s poem “Ode to the Book”, he shows his love and hate to the book. He loves the book that can gives him beautiful imagination. Book can help him to explore the world, not only the physical world, but also the psychological world. “Forest or snow, depth or sky” can represent other lives in the book, such as a happy life, a sad life, or maybe an adventurous life. On the next line, he says “but hate”, he hates the book at the same time. He hates books that limit people’s thinking. He uses the word “spider” to describe it, these “poisonous wires” lead people into a certain way of thinking. He is trying to say that many people love reading books to experience different things, but books can sometimes mislead these readers like little flies are trapped by spiders.

light

breaks

in two

tomato

halves,

and the streets

run

with juice.

In December

the tomato

cuts loose,

invades

kitchens,

takes over lunches,

settles

at rest

on sideboards,

with the glasses,

butter dishes,

blue salt-cellars.

It has

its own radiance,

a goodly majesty.

This poem can be classified as a political poem. Neruda is using the tomato to symbolize his country. One reading of the  word “halves” in the poem is that it refers to his country’s history.  Between the 15th century and the 19th century, Spain colonized Chile–a subject of great concern to Neruda.  Thus the two halves could represent the indigenous and the European people who continue to live together in Chile.   It might seem as if this poem is solely about the beauty of tomatoes, but key words such as “invade” and “take over” suggest military aggression.

Neruda uses words like “invades” and “takes over” to refer to Spain’s invasion in Chile

Spain has taken over Chile, and Chile was divided in half. In the lines ” invades kitchens, takes over lunches”, . The tomato is metaphors of Spain, and the “kitchens” is a metaphor of Chile. Beside a political poem, Neruda also uses a lot of imagery to develop the poem. In the line “and the streets run with juice”, Neruda gives reader an image of the red tomato juice in the street, which also gives us a historical image of Spain’s invasion in Chile that Chilen’s bloods were on the street and many Chilens killed by the Spainish.

Little Feet
Your tiny feet so fragile, oh god how can no one notice you. Every stone, mire, and drops of snow hurt your feet. Everyone is blind to the effect you have on the things around you. though your feet bleed, that blood leaves pleasantness and happiness. You are brave, you are perfect little one. Young child you hold two tiny gems, how can people overlook you?
During Gabriela Mistral’s early life, she was never far from poverty. At the age of 15 she became a teacher’s aid to support her mother after her father’s departure. One can interpret this poem to meaning of the “feet” in this poem as the young children in impoverished chile. There is also the interpretation that in this format we can just think Mistral is talking about feet and how they are when they are cold and bleeding, “Little wounded feet.” It’s like taking one point and dismissing the rest, maybe the real meaning and sadness comes after this little stanza by simplifying and getting to the main point we lose so much. However I took this poem to mean that as an educator Mistral can be using feet to symbolize poverty within her country of Chile; As well well as the children who she believe have a chance to change their life no matter the tribulations going on in their lives. She sees the good in these kids and wants to show that no matter what people around you are saying and the things going on in your life you are perfection. Beyond all this ugliness in this world children are the future and the true beauty of this world. I interpreted this as possibly that she did not have a beautiful childhood and her life wasn’t always perfect with every “stone” and “snow” were the everyday trials and tribulation. Mistral states that feet as “jewels”, One can interpret this as it’s not just about the literal feet but one’s life. She could be trying to prove that they are just as important as other people in other countries. In this effort she is trying to show us that everyone in this world is overlooking Chile and it’s situation because it’s not worth its time. The blood could mean Chiles contributions to the world and how no one in this world acknowledges the possible beauty Chile and it’s people can contribute to society. One part that really stood out to me in which I found an intensity and beseechment in Mistrals words was when she screams “how can people pass and not see you!”. She is asking us to notice and acknowledge the troubles of the youth in her country, not just to notice it but do something about it.

Natacha Peguero

In “God Wills It” the poem describes how Gabriela Mistral will be destroyed if the man that she loves does not stay with her. She expresses that they are meant to be together and he will be unhappy without her. In the previous poem called “Ballad” it describes how Gabriela is in love with a man but unfortunately that man desires someone else who he kisses. She describes this in her poem “God Wills It” when she states “like a thief you will creep into the deepest corners of the earth to kiss her”. Gabriela is upset that the person she loves wants to be with someone else. Gabriela believes that another woman would never be as great as her and he will forever be haunted by Gabriela’s memory. In “God Wills It” she shows the impact she will have on this man by stating “And, yet when you lift her countenance you will find my tear stained face”… “My name will burst from your tongue”. This portrays that in her mind they have to be together rather than apart or everyone will suffer.

Gabriela is not the only one that believes that her lover has to stay but also the earth, the universe, and god. In the beginning of the poem “God Wills It” she repeats how earth suffers when they’re apart. “The earth will become a hateful stepmother” “Water will shudder at hint” “earth will spew forth serpents”. This is her plead and threat to convince him to stay because the world will no longer be perfect. Since they do not have children “desolate knees that rock no child” or anything else that can sway him to stay, having a higher being may be able to convince him. Also describing her knees as desolated helps her gain guilt from the lover that no longer wants her because she weak and in pain. She also uses God to persuade him. “God will not want the sun to shine on you, if you do not walk with me. God will not let you drink waters, that do not reflect my face. God will not let you sleep etc.…”. She will suffer, the earth will suffer, and god will punish him for being with another woman.

Gabriela moves sporadically with examples of her pain and his pain throughout the poem. Some of the meaning gets lost in translation when simplified due to not being to understand her message. The intensity of what she feels is being reduce making harder for people to understand her misery. She is extremely desperate to get her lover back. One literally technique that proves this is symbolism of the earth and its destruction. She also uses strong repetition of the word God to shows how the sprits of the world needs to make her relationship work.  The symbolism is  lost when you simplify the poem.

“I killed one of me,

one I did not love.

She was the flame

of mountain cactus.

She was drought and fire,

thirstless.

With rock at her feet

And sky at her shoulder,

she never stooped

in search of cooling springs.”

In this excerpt from Gabriela Mistral’s poem “The Other”, she appears to refer to her alter ego. When she says, “I killed one of me, one I did not love”, it is not to say that she actually killed someone. Mistral is really trying to say that she has let go of her alter ego. In other words, she is no longer the person that she used to be. By insinuating the idea of one “I did not love”, she evokes the notion that she is not proud of the person that she used to be. In the next line, Mistral goes on to say, “she was the flame, of mountain cactus”. The flame can symbolize either pain and destruction or passion and rebirth. In this case, the flame represents pain and destruction as it highlights any devastation and agony that she may have inflicted on herself or others in the past. However, Mistral also makes use of the flame to display the passion that has to reinvent herself and become a better person. Next Mistral says, “she was drought and fire, thirstless”. A drought is defined as a continued absence of something specific usually in reference to water. In this instance, she appears to use the word drought to refer to an absence of happiness in her life. We also see another reference to flames and fire which is used in this case to demonstrate the pain that she feels from lacking happiness and she uses thirstless at the end of this line to show that at one point she loses hope in ever finding happiness. Finally, Mistral says, “With rock at her feet and sky at her shoulder, she never stooped in search of cold springs”. She uses the words “rock at her feet” and “sky at her shoulder” to show that she used to be stubborn and stuck in her bad habits. It is important to note that in this english translation, it appears that she uses the words “she never stooped in search of cold springs”, to say that at the time she never stopped to think about how she could turn her life around. However in Spanish it says “y no bajaba nunca, a buscar ojos de agua”, which would translate to “and she never came down, to look for eyes of water”, which may then appear to the reader that she is saying that she never stopped to look at the affects that her action had on herself and others. The point that Gabriela Mistral is trying to get across in her poem is that the purpose of life is to learn from the mistakes we made in the past so that we can have a better future.

My heart swells that the Universe

like a fiery cascade may enter.

The new day comes. Its coming

leaves me breathless.

I sing. Like a cavern brimming

I sing my new day.

For grace lost and recovered

I stand humble. Not giving. Receiving.

Until the Gorgon night,

vanquished, flees.

Despite on the successful career Gabriela Mistral had a tragic life, her lyrics conveys many of her personal feelings. At different stages of her life she has lost most of her family members and the other significant people to her. This poem, in my opinion, illustrates the struggle to recovery and healing process of her soul.

” The new day comes. Its coming leaves me breathless.”

It is reasonable to assume that she feels fragile and lonely to go into the future “of the new day”,  however she likely appreciates the life and finds the strength to move on.  The pain of loss changed her in the way she become less loving person for fear of self protection. Although she fights to be happy, nonetheless her pain did not leave her, at some point it keeps coming back as a monster of the night ” The Gorgon night”.

“I forgot they had made you deaf

to my outcry;

I forgot your silence,

your livid pallor.

I forgot your inert hand,

slow now to seek my hand.

I forgot your eyes staring

wide with the supreme question.

While it is difficult, at least for me, to discern exactly to whom or what this poem refers to, there is reason to speculate that it signifies the end of a relationship. Firstly, the lines “I forgot they had made you deaf to my outcry; I forgot your silence,” gives the impression that whoever didn’t show up, did so intentionally after being convinced of their partner’s fault. Moreover, the lines “I forgot your inert hand, slow now to seek my hand,” suggests that whoever’s hand is being sought, is perhaps reluctant and avoidant in reaching out or being with their partner. The following lines “I forgot your eyes staring wide with supreme question,” suggests a bewilderment or surprise with which their partner responds to the narrators unidentified action. This possibility is further supported by a line from the previous stanza indicating towards the “livid pallor” of the narrator’s partner. The pairing of these starkly contrasting words, with “livid” implying vitality and strength, and “pallor” meaning its opposite, emphasizes the “pallor” of the narrator’s partner’s reaction.

For your second response paper, choose one poem either by Gabriela Mistral or Pablo Neruda and paraphrase it.  Rewrite it in your own words in the form of a prose paragraph.  Then in a second paragraph try to articulate what your paragraph left out.  What gets lost in translation?  What you have done in paraphrasing the poem is remove many of its formal and poetic devices.  What do these devices contribute to the meaning of the poem or the experience of the reader?

One page, double spaced.  Due Thursday, October 26

‘No, my dear, I can’t speak to any man except my husband. Who knows what sort of person this fellow is?’

‘He surely isn’t a bad person, and you don’t have to marry him. What’s the harm in just a little conversation? If Doctor Sahib were here I’d ask him to order you’

‘Are people with generous hearts automatically of good characters too? Certain men feel no hesitation about ogling at someone else’s wife.’ (pg.138)

In this excerpt from The Second Wife, Nirmala’s friend, Sudha, reproaches Nirmala for wanting to talk to a man who’s not her husband because certain men won’t hesitate to flirt with Nirmala even though she’s married. According to Sudha, Nirmala is the one who must limit herself even though she’s not the one doing anything wrong. This gives us a glimpse at the patriarchal system in place in the text’s society. Even though the man would be the guilty one in such situation, the woman is the one facing the consequences. There’s no one condemning the man for “ogling at someone else’s wife,” but rather the woman for interacting with him in the first place. Moreover, the fact that Sudha “can’t speak to any man except her husband,” and the fact that she believes Nirmala shouldn’t either demonstrates that society as a whole tends to punish women instead of men. They are not teaching men to not check out women but instead taking freedom away from women. When Sudha says that men feel no “hesitation” it implies that it’s practically a natural thing for men to do even though it’s disrespectful. This shows the effects of the patriarchal system that has been in place for centuries.

” Munshiji spoke the words just to say something, but he feared lest Mansaram might consent to going home.  He was looking for any excuse to put Mansaram in the hospital and he wanted to place full responsibility for it on Mansaram alone.” (pg.104)

In the Second Wife by Premchand, Munshiji married a sixteen-year-old girl, Nirmala, to fulfill the mother role that his previous wife left when she died. Nirmala slowly tries to become a mother figure for Munshiji’s three sons but as she dedicates most of her time to the kids, Munshiji starts to become envious of his children. His eldest son, Mansaram, being the same age as Nirmala immediately became a target for his jealousy. Munshiji being conscious of his old appearance and Nirmala’s disinterest in him develops an inferiority complex. Due to this Munshiji pushes Mansaram out of his house and into a dorm as he suspects a romatic link between him and Nirmala. Mansaram feeling confused and dejected becomes depressed not only because he misses his mother but because he realized that his father no longer cared for him. Thereafter, he stops eating and starts to prepare himself to die because he could not bear thinking that he had disappointed his father and that he was now a burden to his family.

When Mansaram’s physical and emotional health becomes compromised the school calls Munshiji to take his son home. Munshiji seeing his son in such as condition shows faint signs of worry but that worry is less powerful than his suspicion. Instead of taking Mansaram home, where he could get better by being nurtured, Munshiji wishes that his son will refuse to go home. For the first time in ages, Munshiji’s plan goes the way that he wants as Mansaram refuses to go home and opts out for going to a hospital. Instead of fearing that his son’s condition will worsen, Munshiji fears more that Mansaram will go home because most likely Nirmala will be the one taking care of him. This is significant because Munshiji’s jealousy blinds his judgment as a father. That is, he is no longer an honorable man but one who tried to maintain that image as he wished for his own son to take the blame for being sick when Munshiji’s actions are the main reason for the seclusion that caused his son’s illness. The word “alone” is a representation of Mansaram’s mental state as he no longer has anyone that he can rely on. Although, the word can be omitted and the sentence Premchand does not do so. This can be a sign that like the word “alone” itself is an inseparable part of Mansaram’s life which is bound to be spent in solitude due to his father’s selfishness as well as that of other characters.