Thursday, October 04, 2007
The cat according to Pablo Neruda
Ode to the Cat, from Voyages and Homecomings, by Pablo Neruda
The animals were imperfect,
long-tailed,
unfortunate in their heads.
Little by little they
put themselves together,
making themselves a landscape,
acquiring spots, grace, flight.
The cat,
only the cat
appeared complete and proud:
he was born completely finished,
walking alone and knowing what he wanted.
Neruda's splendid poem goes on to describe the cat's many attributes: his golden eyes, his air of mystery, the way in which he polices the house. The author professes, finally, that the cat is unknowable. And he says: "everything/is too unclean/for the immaculate foot of the cat."
I'm sure all cats will agree that Neruda knew the essense of the cat. He is a great poet!
Look for the Friday Ark tomorrow and--on Sunday 10/7/2007--the Carnival of the Cats at Stranger Ranger.
Labels: poetry
# posted by Aloysius @ 2:07 PM 
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