Death Alone Poem by Pablo Neruda

Death Alone

Rating: 3.0


There are lone cemeteries,
tombs full of soundless bones,
the heart threading a tunnel,
a dark, dark tunnel:
like a wreck we die to the very core,
as if drowning at the heart
or collapsing inwards from skin to soul.

There are corpses,
clammy slabs for feet,
there is death in the bones,
like a pure sound,
a bark without its dog,
out of certain bells, certain tombs
swelling in this humidity like lament or rain.

I see, when alone at times,
coffins under sail
setting out with the pale dead, women in their dead braids,
bakers as white as angels,
thoughtful girls married to notaries,
coffins ascending the vertical river of the dead,
the wine-dark river to its source,
with their sails swollen with the sound of death,
filled with the silent noise of death.

Death is drawn to sound
like a slipper without a foot, a suit without its wearer,
comes to knock with a ring, stoneless and fingerless,
comes to shout without a mouth, a tongue, without a throat.
Nevertheless its footsteps sound
and its clothes echo, hushed like a tree.

I do not know, I am ignorant, I hardly see
but it seems to me that its song has the colour of wet violets,
violets well used to the earth,
since the face of death is green,
and the gaze of death green
with the etched moisture of a violet's leaf
and its grave colour of exasperated winter.

But death goes about the earth also, riding a broom
lapping the ground in search of the dead -
death is in the broom,
it is the tongue of death looking for the dead,
the needle of death looking for the thread.

Death lies in our beds:
in the lazy mattresses, the black blankets,
lives a full stretch and then suddenly blows,
blows sound unknown filling out the sheets
and there are beds sailing into a harbour
where death is waiting, dressed as an admiral.

Death Alone
COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Elborath Gelfand 11 April 2010

Neruda simply is the best.

13 9 Reply
Sabitha S Geethall 05 June 2011

when we read this, death silently creeps in 2 our heart with his cold feet...that makes Neruda d greatest poet in d 20 th century....

12 9 Reply
Gan Chennai 23 June 2010

Death is a Panacea for the Tiresome Body

10 8 Reply
Michael Gagliardi 28 April 2010

This is quite a gloomy poem.....great imagery.

11 6 Reply
Fabrizio Frosini 23 November 2015

SPANISH TEXT: SÓLO LA MUERTE HAY cementerios solos, tumbas llenas de huesos sin sonido, el corazón pasando un túnel oscuro, oscuro, oscuro, como un naufragio hacia adentro nos morimos, como ahogarnos en el corazón, como irnos cayendo desde la piel al alma. Hay cadáveres, hay pies de pegajosa losa fría, hay la muerte en los huesos, como un sonido puro, como un ladrido sin perro, saliendo de ciertas campanas, de ciertas tumbas, creciendo en la humedad como el llanto o la lluvia. Yo veo, solo, a veces, ataúdes a vela zarpar con difuntos pálidos, con mujeres de trenzas muertas, con panaderos blancos como ángeles, con niñas pensativas casadas con notarios, ataúdes subiendo el río vertical de los muertos, el río morado, hacia arriba, con las velas hinchadas por el sonido de la muerte, hinchadas por el sonido silencioso de la muerte. A lo sonoro llega la muerte como un zapato sin pie, como un traje sin hombre, llega a golpear con un anillo sin piedra y sin dedo, llega a gritar sin boca, sin lengua, sin garganta. Sin embargo sus pasos suenan y su vestido suena, callado, como un árbol. Yo no sé, yo conozco poco, yo apenas veo, pero creo que su canto tiene color de violetas húmedas, de violetas acostumbradas a la tierra porque la cara de la muerte es verde, y la mirada de la muerte es verde, con la aguda humedad de una hoja de violeta y su grave color de invierno exasperado. Pero la muerte va también por el mundo vestida de escoba, lame el suelo buscando difuntos, la muerte está en la escoba, es la lengua de la muerte buscando muertos, es la aguja de la muerte buscando hilo. La muerte está en los catres: en los colchones lentos, en las frazadas negras vive tendida, y de repente sopla: sopla un sonido oscuro que hincha sábanas, y hay camas navegando a un puerto en donde está esperando, vestida de almirante. ______________________ (da Residencia en la terra)

11 0 Reply
Mahtab Bangalee 13 October 2020

Death is drawn to sound like a slipper without a foot, a suit without its wearer, comes to knock with a ring, , ......... But death goes about the earth also, riding a broom lapping the ground in search of the dead - death is in the broom, ..... Death lies in our beds: in the lazy mattresses, the black blankets, lives a full stretch and then suddenly blows, ........ excellent poem about the death; death is the ending of this worldly life comes alone to take individually.....

0 0 Reply
Ravi Kopra 13 October 2020

First stanza There are lone cemeteries. Tombs full of bones without sound. The heart passing through a tunnel, Dark, dark, dark, Like a shipwreck we die inside Like drowning in our hearts Like skin shrinking, squeezing out our soul.

0 0 Reply
Dr Antony Theodore 13 October 2020

There are corpses, clammy slabs for feet, there is death in the bones, like a pure sound, a bark without its dog, Great poem of Pablo.tony

0 0 Reply
Edward Kofi Louis 13 October 2020

Tombs! ! ! Soundless bones! Muse of the dead. Thanks for sharing this poem with us.

0 0 Reply
biswojit sahoo 11 December 2018

In this play.each an every person gone in alone. As like a lonelyness thing. It is absurd play

0 1 Reply
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