酷我-北美枫

[ericcoliu]

Poems of the Week

Poem Lyrics of Touch by Octavio Paz, Translation by Eliot Weinberger


My hands
open the curtains of your being
clothe you in a further nudity
uncover the bodies of your body
My hands
invent another body for your body


My Ero-poetic Reply:

Between what I uncover and what you imagine,
Between what you imagine and what I touch,
Between what I touch and what you respond,
Between what you respond and what I embrace,
Octavio Paz’s Touch.


Poem Lyrics of Maithuna by Octavio Paz, Translation by Eliot Weinberger


My eyes discover you
naked
and cover you
with a warm rain
of glances


My Ero-poetic Reply

Maithuna:
The eyes and the body
The rain and the lotus
The thunderbolt and the bell
The two in one.


Note:

Maithuna is a Sanskrit term used in Tantra, which is a class of Hindu or Buddhist religious literature concerned with ritual acts of body, speech and mind. It is often translated as sexual union in a ritual context, and it constitutes the main part of the Grand Ritual of Tantra.


Octavio Paz (1914-1998; 1990 Nobel Literature Laureate)

The intellectual output in general and the literary one in particular of Octavio Paz are one of the most extensive and important contributions in the history of Latin America. His essays on poetry and poetics -- especially in The Bow and the Lyre (1956) and Children of the Mire (1974) -- and his books on literature, eroticism, politics, modern art, anthropology, and Mexican culture have been enormously influential. His groundbreaking study of Mexican identity and thought, The Labyrinth of Solitude (1961), explored the complexities of the Mexican psyche. With its unique combination of Indian and European sensibilities, Paz contended that the Mexican consciousness resists both the linguistic hegemony of the Spanish language and the cultural "otherness" of the United States. Fuelling an intellectual passion through his well-crafted essays and opinion-shaping magazines, such as Barandal, Plural , and Vuelta, he has become an indispensable guide in the Spanish language for several generations.

As Paz scholar Muriel Rukeyser stresses, Octavio Paz has won distinction as an anthropologist, philosopher and critic of art and literature. However, it is as a poet that he is most celebrated. A prolific author and poet, Paz published scores of works during his lifetime, many of which have been translated into other languages. His early poetry was influenced by Marxism, surrealism, existentialism, Buddhism, and Hinduism. His later poetry dealt mainly with love and eroticism, the nature of time, and Buddhism. Due to his very extensive reading, constant travelling, and vast diplomatic experiences, Paz not only rooted his poetry in the mythology of South America and his native Mexico, but also transplanted it into the international context. His poetry has transfigured the images of the contemporary world.

In his acceptance speech, which was entitled Poetry, Myth, Revolution, for the 1989 Premio Alexis de Tocqueville Prize, Paz stated:

"From adolescence I have written poems and I have not stopped writing them. I wanted to be a poet and nothing more. In my books of prose I made up my mind to serve poetry, to justify and defend it, and to explain it to others and to myself. I soon discovered that the defence of poetry, despised in our century, was inseparable from the defence of liberty. From there arose my passionate interest in the political and social issues that have agitated our times.”

This declaration clearly shows how he conceived the intimate relationship between his different intellectual enterprises: poems, essays on poetry, and cultural, political, and social reflections. The common thread that binds these various intellectual outputs together is Paz' unflagging commitment to the complex communicability of metaphorical language. "Poetry makes things more transparent and clearer and teaches us to respect men and nature," he insisted. A writer of interpenetrations -- of solitude and solidarity, of clarity and allusiveness, of Mexican specificity and international applicability -- Paz won the 1990 Nobel Prize in literature.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[[ericcoliu]]

Poems of the Week

Poem Lyrics of Touch by Octavio Paz, Translation by Eliot Weinberger


My hands
open the curtains of your being
clothe you in a further nudity
uncover the bodies of your body
My hands
invent another body for your body


My Ero-poetic Reply:

Between what I uncover and what you imagine,
Between what you imagine and what I touch,
Between what I touch and what you respond,
Between what you respond and what I embrace,
Octavio Paz’s Touch.


Poem Lyrics of Maithuna by Octavio Paz, Translation by Eliot Weinberger


My eyes discover you
naked
and cover you
with a warm rain
of glances


My Ero-poetic Reply

Maithuna:
The eyes and the body
The rain and the lotus
The thunderbolt and the bell
The two in one.


Note:

Maithuna is a Sanskrit term used in Tantra, which is a class of Hindu or Buddhist religious literature concerned with ritual acts of body, speech and mind. It is often translated as sexual union in a ritual context, and it constitutes the main part of the Grand Ritual of Tantra.


Octavio Paz (1914-1998; 1990 Nobel Literature Laureate)

The intellectual output in general and the literary one in particular of Octavio Paz are one of the most extensive and important contributions in the history of Latin America. His essays on poetry and poetics -- especially in The Bow and the Lyre (1956) and Children of the Mire (1974) -- and his books on literature, eroticism, politics, modern art, anthropology, and Mexican culture have been enormously influential. His groundbreaking study of Mexican identity and thought, The Labyrinth of Solitude (1961), explored the complexities of the Mexican psyche. With its unique combination of Indian and European sensibilities, Paz contended that the Mexican consciousness resists both the linguistic hegemony of the Spanish language and the cultural "otherness" of the United States. Fuelling an intellectual passion through his well-crafted essays and opinion-shaping magazines, such as Barandal, Plural , and Vuelta, he has become an indispensable guide in the Spanish language for several generations.

As Paz scholar Muriel Rukeyser stresses, Octavio Paz has won distinction as an anthropologist, philosopher and critic of art and literature. However, it is as a poet that he is most celebrated. A prolific author and poet, Paz published scores of works during his lifetime, many of which have been translated into other languages. His early poetry was influenced by Marxism, surrealism, existentialism, Buddhism, and Hinduism. His later poetry dealt mainly with love and eroticism, the nature of time, and Buddhism. Due to his very extensive reading, constant travelling, and vast diplomatic experiences, Paz not only rooted his poetry in the mythology of South America and his native Mexico, but also transplanted it into the international context. His poetry has transfigured the images of the contemporary world.

In his acceptance speech, which was entitled Poetry, Myth, Revolution, for the 1989 Premio Alexis de Tocqueville Prize, Paz stated:

"From adolescence I have written poems and I have not stopped writing them. I wanted to be a poet and nothing more. In my books of prose I made up my mind to serve poetry, to justify and defend it, and to explain it to others and to myself. I soon discovered that the defence of poetry, despised in our century, was inseparable from the defence of liberty. From there arose my passionate interest in the political and social issues that have agitated our times.”

This declaration clearly shows how he conceived the intimate relationship between his different intellectual enterprises: poems, essays on poetry, and cultural, political, and social reflections. The common thread that binds these various intellectual outputs together is Paz' unflagging commitment to the complex communicability of metaphorical language. "Poetry makes things more transparent and clearer and teaches us to respect men and nature," he insisted. A writer of interpenetrations -- of solitude and solidarity, of clarity and allusiveness, of Mexican specificity and international applicability -- Paz won the 1990 Nobel Prize in literature.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[ericcoliu]

Octavio Paz had a strong connection to the birthplace of Buddhism and Hinduism, India. In 1952 he travelled to India for the first time; later in 1962 he was named Mexico's ambassador to India. During his stay in India, Paz completed several works, including The Monkey Grammarian and Eastern Slope.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[[ericcoliu]]

Octavio Paz had a strong connection to the birthplace of Buddhism and Hinduism, India. In 1952 he travelled to India for the first time; later in 1962 he was named Mexico's ambassador to India. During his stay in India, Paz completed several works, including The Monkey Grammarian and Eastern Slope.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[fanfan]

[[FAFAFA]]

[ericcoliu]

[[ericcoliu]]

[redshoe]

[[redshoe]]

[ericcoliu]

[[ericcoliu]]

[redshoe]

[quote="Octavio Paz"

Maithuna


My eyes discover you
naked
and cover you
with a warm rain
of glances


Oh, your male gaze is hot. Sorry, it's not P.C.

When your eyes cover me
with a rain of glances
my heart drums out a thunder beat

The hand of love touches me
takes off the curtains of my being

Your eyes discover me
naked
_________________
I am a butterfly drunk with life.

[[redshoe]]

[quote="Octavio Paz"

Maithuna


My eyes discover you
naked
and cover you
with a warm rain
of glances


Oh, your male gaze is hot. Sorry, it's not P.C.

When your eyes cover me
with a rain of glances
my heart drums out a thunder beat

The hand of love touches me
takes off the curtains of my being

Your eyes discover me
naked
_________________
I am a butterfly drunk with life.

[星子]

I don't know why I am not fan of his poems. It may be the style and the wording.
I do agree his has the simplicity quality and deep meaning. But they are too bold for me. I like subtle and elegant poems.

I cannot read his original, but only the translation you posted here. I think his original may be better.
_________________

[[ANNA]]

I don't know why I am not fan of his poems. It may be the style and the wording.
I do agree his has the simplicity quality and deep meaning. But they are too bold for me. I like subtle and elegant poems.

I cannot read his original, but only the translation you posted here. I think his original may be better.
_________________

[Champagne]

[[Champagne]]

[星子]

Hi Champagne,

I have read erotic poems, I do believe they need imagination.

But his are merely words so beyond imagination. More like mind piercing, too little description . . . Though you could say because of that, his didn't have frame to limit the imagination.
_________________

[[ANNA]]

Hi Champagne,

I have read erotic poems, I do believe they need imagination.

But his are merely words so beyond imagination. More like mind piercing, too little description . . . Though you could say because of that, his didn't have frame to limit the imagination.
_________________

[hahaview]

[[hahaview]]

[星子]

Hi hahaview,

Sure, I believe each reader or writer possess the poetic imagination of her own.

For me, I don't how man read erotic poems.

Reading his, if you don't say to me that his is erotic, I will read his in more general meaning. The touch is more beyond erotism.

Interesting. I will bring this to TOPS group to get others' feedback.
_________________

[[ANNA]]

Hi hahaview,

Sure, I believe each reader or writer possess the poetic imagination of her own.

For me, I don't how man read erotic poems.

Reading his, if you don't say to me that his is erotic, I will read his in more general meaning. The touch is more beyond erotism.

Interesting. I will bring this to TOPS group to get others' feedback.
_________________

[ericcoliu]

[[ericcoliu]]