this is one of my favorite pictures of all time. awkward hand placement on nymph statue aside, this image stirs in me such delight and happiness. on the left is gabriel garcia marquez, author of such life-changing reads as one hundred years of solitude and love in the time of cholera (though my favorite work by him is the much shorter, poignant short story "no one writes to the colonel.") then. there on the right. with his beret tipped just so, is pablo neruda. i was first introduced to neruda in my senior year of high school. nestled between passages from lord of the flies and the joy luck club in my world lit textbook was his sonnet xvii, which begins with this unforgettable killer of an opening line:
i do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrows of carnations the fire shoots off.
i love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.
with that, i was hooked. volumes upon volumes of neruda poetry line my bookshelves at home. each different translation seems to bring out another side of his intellect, his wit and, of course, his incredibly amorous spirit.
and i could talk about marquez for days. i affectionately refer to him as gabo, as do his close friends. and shakira. behold this delicious tidbit from love in the time of cholera:
to him she seemed so beautiful, so seductive, so different from ordinary people, that he could not understand why no one was as distracted as he by the clicking of her heels on the paving stones, why no one else's heart was wild with the breeze stirred by the sighs of her veils, why everyone did not go mad with the movements of her braid, the flight of her hands, the gold of her laughter. he had not missed a single one of her gestures, not one of the indications of her character, but he did not dare approach her for fear of destroying the spell.
gorgeous, no? and now,-this black and white, tiny print. these two were friends! perhaps not best friends, but close enough to take a picture with a nymph, which says a lot. i love the idea that my two favorite authors not only knew each other, but spent time in each other's company. isn't that the making of any great friendship? that learning from and growing with each other that only strengthens the other person?
it is with this introduction i present to you,
our dog, pablo myers, named after neruda.
not quite as fluent in spanish, but i assure you--every bit as handsome. and sexy.
5 comments:
I'm a Pablo Neruda fan too!! I read House of the Spirits in high school and he's referenced in the book, though not mentioned by name. (It's a great book by the way.)
This post makes me want to stop by the library and get something from Neruda and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
Oh and Pablo Myers is awfully cute.
haha thanks! aren't they just the BEST writers? neruda is so fabulous. i have his "100 Love Sonnets" sitting on my desk right now. they are written to his wife, matilde, and they are stunning. my favorite is "i could write the saddest lines." heartbreaking.
marquez is amazing as well. he writes a bunch of smaller, shorter books that aren't quite as well-advertised as his novels. i suggest starting with some of those to get acquainted to his writing style. it's full of magical realism. but shouldn't all novels be magical? i love him.
and pablo myers is a spoiled mess, but we love him to death:)
wow, that piece from marquez can only be described as breath-taking. there is no doubt, i will be re-reading those sentences over and over again.
haha, and the last line made me laugh! he's a darling little dog. i especially love the inspiration behind his name. i would guess that not many dogs have that :)
I am completely hooked now! Can't wait to find all of his poems and read them!
I just love how you introduced to us your precious Pablo. He is adorable!
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