YOGIC PHILOSOPHY IN THE POETRY OF CECILIA
MEIRELES
The Young poet of Cote Sauvage, one day
said to me:
The waves are coming to say Hello to the
Earth..
It reminded me of my favourite woman poet,
Cecilia Meireles, who is considered the greatest woman poet in the Portugese
language.
O choro vem perto dos olhos
para que a dor transborde e caia.
O choro vem quase chorando
como a onda que toca na praia.
Descem dos ceus ordens augustas
e o mar chama a onda para o centro.
O choro foge sem vestigios,
mas levando
naufragos dentro.
There is a quest for love, but not of
saudade. Nothing mystical but personal statement, separating herself from what
she sees, nature does not lead to any self realization, but she emphasizes the
present, the reality and the actual presence of the moment.
Translation:
Our tears well up in our eyes
-only so can our grief overflow-
our tears well up, like the weeping
of a wave as it touches the shore.
Stern orders come down from the heavens:
the sea calls the wave to its heart.
Our tears bear the shipwrecked away;
Not a trace do they leave as they part.
About ten years ago, there was a used
bookstore along the Miracle Mile in Coral Gables in Miami, now gobbled up by
some shop selling yuppie Tupperware? I was aware of Cecilia Meireles from a
poem I had read elsewhere in translation and when I saw a book of hers at this
bookstore, I was more than happy.
I searched at the few places where my books
are kept and I found my copy amidst my books in a warehouse and have carried it
with me since then.
Search for love, but at the same time
detachment, I made a note to myself, it is very yogic in concept. It would be
nice to love without attachment like the real Yogis do, but how does Cecilia do
it?
At the same time wanting solitude!
All of us who are in love are constantly
reminded of our own mortal condition when love for another person is involved,
you want to be free and at the same time but the human condition dictates the
love that without love, there is an emptiness of silence. How to free yourself
of this imprisonment? Cecilia thinks you can know the essence of love, the
abstraction only when you free yourself.
Infinity and Solitude, which defines her
poems, over and over again..
Porque pensar em qualquer coisa,
se tudo esta sobre a minha alma:
vento, flores, aguas, estrelas,
e musicas de noite e albas?
The escape is an escape into nature and to
be one with its forces.
Why need I think about anything?
when everything rests upon my soul?
wind, flowers, water, stars,
the music of the night and dawns?
I tried to look up her books on line, there
are some poems in translation but none of her books are easily available or
amazon sells them for hundreds of dollars! Strangely enough the community
library near the house here told me they could order and get it for me in a few
days so that I can borrow it, so that it will be ready when I arrive for my
next visit?
If you don't look, you cannot find, stop
waiting for things to happen…I continued reading her poems from the second hand
book I had.
When I was reading the following verse,
something stirred in my heart.
Ir falando contigo, e nao ver mundo ou gente.
E nem sequer t ever—mas ver eterno o
instante.
In speaking to you and see neither world
nor people,
Nor even to see you-but to see the moment
in its eternity.
The present, the presence of it, I thought
of Mindfulness of the Yogis and also what Kabat-Zinn had been talking about..
How come a Carioca born in the early part
of last century at a time when women were restricted severely in Portugese society
(that is why there are no great women writers in Portugese.. no George sand, no
Emily Dickinson!) who went on to become to be identified with Modernism of
Portugese Literature.
The title of the poem I read next caught my
eye: Taj Mahal, Poemas escritos na India.
Here she accords timelessness once to
something man made, not the timeless of sea, the sky, the infinity of space…
Tudo celeste, inumano, intocavel,
Substraindo-se ao olhar, as mais.
All heavenly, all untouchable,
fleeing from the glance and the hands.
Looking for her biography, I could read
that she was fascinated by India and that she had translated Tagore and written
about Gandhi. Many a critic agreed that the influence is much more oriental in
her poems than the Lusitania of her ancestors.
A shepherdess of clouds, with empty face
I follow after figures of deceit,
keeping night watches on the eternal plains
which turn and turn beneath my unshod feet.
(from 'Destiny,' translated by L.S. Downes)
I follow after figures of deceit,
keeping night watches on the eternal plains
which turn and turn beneath my unshod feet.
(from 'Destiny,' translated by L.S. Downes)
It was good for me to discover this oriental
influence on Cecilia Meireles, my favourite woman poet (favourite male poet
will always be Pablo Neruda)
MOTIVE
I sing because the moment exists
And my life is complete.
I am not gay, I am not sad:
I am a poet.
I sing because the moment exists
And my life is complete.
I am not gay, I am not sad:
I am a poet.
So, I send this message to the Little Poet of Cote Sauvage…On our next
meeting, I will read a poem of Cecilia Meireles to you, in Portugese,
Obviamente..
