Octavio Paz: The Street

It's been a long time since I read any Octavio Paz and the last time was when I mused over The Double Flame, a series of essays on the nature of love and eroticism. However, by chance I met with a Paz poem this evening and in the hope that the Gods of Copyright are in a benign mood or maybe even that this particular poem is free for the edificaton of all, I hereby reproduce it.

The Street

Here is a long and silent street.

I walk in blackness and I stumble and fall

and rise, and I walk, my blind feet

trampling the silent stones and the dry leaves.

Someone behind me also tramples stones, leaves;

if I slow down, he slows;

if I run, he runs. I turn: nobody.

Everything dark and doorless,

only my steps aware of me,

turning and turning among these corners

which lead forever to the street

where nobody waits for, nobody follows me,

where I pursue a man who stumbles

and rises and says when he sees me: nobody.

 

[Translated by Muriel Rukeyser]

Comments

[Sandaric]

La calle

Es una calle larga y silenciosa.
Ando en tinieblas y tropiezo y caigo
y me levanto y piso con pies ciegos
las piedras mudas y las hojas secas
y alguien detrás de mí también las pisa:
si me detengo, se detiene;
si corro, corre. Vuelvo el rostro: nadie.
Todo está oscuro y sin salida,
y doy vueltas y vueltas en esquinas
que dan siempre a la calle
donde nadie me espera ni me sigue,
donde yo sigo a un hombre que tropieza
y se levanta y dice al verme: nadie.

Sounds much better in the original, I think, particularly line 8 which articulates the alienation and inauthenticity with some relish.

I see what you're getting at but don't let the inevitable business of ageing and entropy fatally undermine you. As the coaches say warningly the reality is we are only ever one injury away from oblivion. That is the existential conundrum at the heart of a sporting commitment. It is possible to find 'stoke' out of the water: it takes a certain amount of stoicism and willed re-education.

As a long term follower of the blog, I wish you the very best of luck.

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Bye bye,

Julie

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