Friday, June 24, 2011

EARTH ~





Julio Cortazar



To Be Read in the Interrogative



Have you seen

have you truly seen

the snow the stars the felt steps of the breeze

Have you touched

really have you touched

the plate the bread the face of that woman you love so much

Have you lived

like a blow to the head

the flash the gasp the fall the flight

Have you known

known in every pore of your skin

how your eyes your hands your sex your soft heart

must be thrown away

must be wept away

must be invented all over again


~


from Save Twilight
(City Lights 1997)
selected poems
trans. Stephen Kessler








BORN IN BRUSSELS TO ARGENTINIAN PARENTS IN 1914 JULIO CORTAZAR WAS RAISED IN ARGENTINA BEFORE MOVING TO PARIS IN 1951, WHERE HE PASSED AWAY IN 1984. BETWEEN THEN & THEN HE MANAGED TO BE STRIKINGLY HANDSOME, DARING IN LIFE AND THE NOW CLASSICS HE WROTE, INCLUDING HOPSCOTCH, BLOW UP AND OTHER STORIES, 62: A MODEL KIT, ALL FIRES THE FIRE AND MUCH MORE. NOT ONE OF HIS TITLES WILL LEAD YOU WRONG.




photo : citylights.com