To say that Pablo Neruda's writing is breathtaking is like saying Jimmy Page's guitar playing was decent. The Nerudian way of speaking stuns me, and it reminds me of Mark Strand's "Eating Poetry." I can take two or three words from a Neruda piece at a time and just leave them in my mouth, tasting them over and over again. He was an absolutely incredible wordsmith. Here, below, is one of my favorite Neruda pieces. I love him calling fleas "delicate acrobats." I wonder perhaps if he is talking about nonsocialists, his political adversaries, or perhaps the simplistic masses...how odd, then, to call mass culture "the softest and most profound circus," and yet how accurate. It's difficult not to read this and think some of who we personally view as parasitic members or groups of society. I wanted to share this poem not for its meaning, but because I admire its amazing diction and very curious phrases. Neruda's genius is unmatched.
Fleas Interest Me So Much
Fleas interest me so much
that I let them bite me for hours.
They are perfect, ancient, Sanskrit,
machines that admit of no appeal.
They do not bite to eat,
they bite only to jump;
they are the dancers of the celestial sphere,
delicate acrobats
in the softest and most profound circus;
let them gallop on my skin,
divulge their emotions,
amuse themselves with my blood,
but someone should introduce them to me.
I want to know them closely,
I want to know what to rely on.
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