Neruda, Pablo

Bestiary

1. If only I could converse with fowls
2. Or oysters or with iguanas,
3. With foxes in the dark wood,
4. Or with model penguins;
5. With the ewes on the downs —
6. Impassive and wooly pets —
7. Or with draught horses;
8. If I could argue it out with cats;
9. If only the hens could hear me!
10.  
11. I never thought of chatting with elegant creatures.
12. My curiosity does not extend to the opinion of wasps
13. Or to that of pampered brood mares;
14. They settle differences by flying into a rage
15. Or by racing for the colors.
16. I want to talk with flies
17. And bitches with new puppies;
18. I want to whisper into the ears of snakes.
19.  
20. When I acquired feet to walk with
21. Through triple nights now past,
22. I tracked the dogs of the night,
23. Those seedy tourists that travel trotting in silence
24. Hurrying on to nowhere in particular.
25. I dogged them for many hours,
26. But they had their suspicions,
27. And so those hapless, callous dogs
28. Lost their chance to tell their sad stories
29. And to run in the Street of the Specters
30. With their tails and their shame.
31.  
32. I have always been curious about rabbits
33. With their erotic reputation.
34. Whose salacious whispers stir those genital ears?
35. Their life is continuous procreation
36. Without making novenas to St. Francis;
37. They have no time to listen to foolishness,
38. But only to mount and mount again
39. With indefatigable operation.
40. I want to speak with the rabbit,
41. For I love his desultory ways.
42.  
43. Laid out in tedious paragraphs
44. The spider is wasted on irksome scientists
45. Who see him through flies’ eyes,
46. And describe him as carnivorous,
47. Lustful, faithless, sex-mad, lascivious.
48. Such descriptions simply reflect
49. Their own natures, as I see it.
50. The spider is really an engineer,
51. A divine watchmaker,
52. Detested by narrow minds
53. on account of a couple of flies.
54. I want to chat with the spider;
55. I want her to spin me a star.
56.  
57. I am quite interested in fleas
58. And I let them bite me for hours.
59. They are perfect, ancient Sanskrit beasts.
60. They are mechanical and know nothing of appeal.
61. They don’t bite to find food.
62. They only bite so they can spring.
63. They are the delicate leapers of this world,
64. Acrobats in a most charming and sensible circus.
65. Let them prance across my skin
66. And reveal their motives;
67. Let them tarry for my blood.
68. I hope someone introduces me to them,
69. For I do so want to be intimately acquainted.
70. I want to know who I can rely on.
71.  
72. I never could form a relationship with ruminants.
73. Yet I chew my own cud; so their indifference is a puzzle to me.
74. This is a matter I will have to take up
75. While grazing with the cows and steers
76. Or while laying plans with the bulls.
77. Some way I am going to know
78. All these intestinal things
79. That are hidden within like fantasy lovers.
80.  
81. What do pigs think of dawn?
82. They cannot make incantations,
83. But they may buoy it up with their huge pink bodies.
84.  
85. Pigs defend the dawn while birds eat up the night.
86.  
87. In the dawning when the world is deserted
88. And the spiders are sleeping,
89. People, dogs and the wind are sleeping,
90. The pig grunts and it grows light.
91.  
92. I wish to converse with the pigs.
93.  
94. Soft, sonorous, hoarse frogs!
95. I always wanted to be frog for the day.
96. I always love the pond,
97. Its blades thin as tracery,
98. A floating green canopy world
99. Where the frogs are lords of the sky!
100.  
101. The serenade of the frogs enters my dreaming
102. And nudges it.
103. Its entrance is like the vines climbing
104. The balcony of my boyhood
105. Upward to stalk the nipples of my cousin
106. And beyond, to the jasmine constellations,
107. Twisting in the inky sky of the Southern Cross.
108. And now that the moment has passed,
109. They can’t anymore question me about the heavens.
110.  
111. I don’t think I know frog talk yet;
112. It is so raucous.
113. How, then, can I be a poet, if this is true?
114. What do I know yet of the multiple
115. Geographies in the night?
116.  
117. In this universe that hums
118. in silence I wish to make more
119. connections through different idioms and ways
120. to signify; I want to be familiar
121. in this world.
122.  
123. Everyone has relied on the gauche
124. explanations offered by sharp
125. capitalists and women who work
126. from lists. But I wish to speak to
127. many things, and I will not move from this
128. planet before I know
129. what I came here
130. to seek, before I track down this business to its end.
131. Human company is not enough; I must go much
132. further afield and much nearer
133. to home.
134.  
135. So, my friends, I must depart
136. For a conversation with the horse.
137. Excuse me, please, poetic Muse;
138. And pardon me, professor:
139. My schedule this week is
140. filled with attending a mass of babble.
141.  
142. What was that cats’ name?