I forgot to put a reminder in the Calendar, so you have an extra week to get this done. It was originally due by March 17th.
This time, let's discuss a poem by Octavio Paz on page 172 of your
textbook. It's called "Motion" in it's English translation here. I am
also giving you an on-line link to the original Spanish version. It
would be great to hear what those of you who are fluent in both
languages think about differences caused by translation, if any.
As you experience this poem, pay special attention to the three
questions which follow it in the text (in the green box). I think those
questions can spark some really interesting discussions this week!
Enjoy!
At first glance of this poem, I was drawn to the parallel structure that the author Octavio Paz formed throughout his poem. I like how he starts with if… and then an I am. The effect of the parallel structure I think is to emphasis the relationship between the two pairings. The first read through kind of confused me. I did not really find how the pairings went together or if they had anything to do with one another. Reading through it over and over, I can’t seem to find a similarity between the pairings or any way to connect them. There are some lines that seem more violent than the others like line 6, “the spike burning in your mind”, line 10, “knife of the sun”, and line 20, “the axe that parts it”. They all are tools that are associated to harm. All of the pairings are related to nature in some way and I think line 9, “the basket of oranges”, seems to be out of place. To me it doesn’t seem to relate to all the other “If you are…” statements. What caught my attention was that the first and last pairing ended with “I am the road of blood”. I think there is a reason that makes the speaker being the road of blood important. Overall this poem was hard for me to analyze. I don’t have anything to relate it to, and I can’t understand what the purpose of this poem is. I am confused by this poem and I would like to see what other classmates think about this poem, and maybe it could help me understand the poem more.
ReplyDeleteThis poem is about life, love, and Obstacles. The speaker is replying to life in all it's troubles and glory. " if you are the morning tide I am the first birds cry" the poem speakers to life itself, anything you throw at me will I will take on with gusto. I really like this poem because I'm still trying to understand the meaning of the individual stanzas. I agree that the " if you are" motif is essential to understanding the over all meaning of the poem. The speaker tells life I will adapt and I can take on the good and bad. The reader sees the determination in the poets attitude toward life expectation;he will succeed at everything.
ReplyDeleteI am very mixed up about this poem. I guess what Im saying is i dont have much of a clue on whats going on. I feel that throughout the poem it starts calm and loving I suppose, however it quickly changes to violence. I agree with Jasmine that is does seem violent with the tools that can be described as something that may cause harm, however I think its so much more than that. As I keep reading this poem I think that the speaker is sin. I first get this idea in the 5th and 6th verse when it says " If you are the tower of night I am the spike burning in your mind" I can imagine the tower being somebodies body and the brain being the light that is burning. So we know that this thing is an Idea. In the next stanza it talks about oranges and knives, and i think of sin being a fruit "like in Adam and Eve" the first sin came from a sin, and the knife is cutting open the fruit which in essence could be a sin. My fav verse would be the next verse about the stone altar and the sacrilegious hand, That kind of tells me that this is about sin, or maybe perhaps ones conscious.
ReplyDeleteI had to read this poem numeruous times to barely grasp a meaning from it. One thing I did notice, as Jasmine pointed out, were the parallels between "if you are" and "I am". It's an interesting balance and the way it was written gives on the assumption that its a ping-pong motion between the good and bad aspects of the things around us. However I feel that the parts relating to "I am" are not necessarily associated with bad connotations. I feel that Octavio Paz is regarding the down side of things in a calm and accepting manner, like this is not great, but hey, what are you going to do about it? And perhaps the good is there with a greater purpose when one acknowledges the bad. To be honest I was not able to explore a further analysis than that.
ReplyDeleteAnd perhaps with the good there is*
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what to think about this poem. I had to reread it a few times just for some part of it to attempt to stick so I could even try to respond in some way. I'm still a little foggy as to what to say. It does almost seem like there's a comparison between "if you are...." to "I am...." but as to what it all could mean I haven't the faintest idea. I kind of felt that the "I am" was saying that I will always be there for you despite it all but I'm still not altogether sure.
ReplyDeleteThe poem “Motion” by Octavio Paz speaks of someone enraged and on a path of destruction. The poet relates most of his lines to death or something disastrous. He seems to be addressing anything that is good and lovely that he is the complete opposite. Evidence of this is seen in the first and second lines which state “if you are amber mare, I am the road of blood”.
ReplyDeleteAll the pairings seem to complement each other because with every line that depicts something good, a line relating to something bad follows. However, the line that was most mysterious me was “if you are the first snow, I am he who lights the hearth of dawn”. The line that was most blatant of suggesting violence was “if you are a basket of oranges, I am the knife of the sun”. There was no line that suggested peace in the poem based on what I read.
The poem “Motion” by Octavio Paz speaks of someone enraged and on a path of destruction. The poet relates most of his lines to death or something disastrous. He seems to be addressing anything that is good and lovely that he is the complete opposite. Evidence of this is seen in the first and second lines which state “if you are amber mare, I am the road of blood”.
ReplyDeleteAll the pairings seem to complement each other because with every line that depicts something good, a line relating to something bad follows. However, the line that was most mysterious me was “if you are the first snow, I am he who lights the hearth of dawn”. The line that was most blatant of suggesting violence was “if you are a basket of oranges, I am the knife of the sun”. There was no line that suggested peace in the poem based on what I read.
This poem was a little bit confused instead i read it in Ensglish too. I consider that the author or speaker was very directed to that person who loves and it is trying to explain or show who this two persons are related or are like a complement and the are totally dependent of each other. Also other point of view from this poem is that the person to whom it is directed is the cold one. If this person is cold then he is going to make her feel warmth, if she is away then he is going to bring her closer, if she is hard then he is going to make her be softer. Those things are very contradicter from each other. What it was very interesting to me is the last two lines of the poem, where the author says "Si tú eres el sol que se levanta
ReplyDeleteyo soy el camino de sangre" this tells me that at the end she turns the way she was like and he did the same too.
This poem “Motion” by Octavio Paz was somewhat confusing. But the Spanish version made more sense me still. The repetition of “If you are the,” and “I am,” tells the readers that there has been many situations in which this is true. I was able to understand that the speaker is the one causing pain to the one he loves. All the things that Paz says he does like “I am the knife of the sun… I am the axe that parts it” symbolize negative things. This makes me think that he hurts his lover with actions or perhaps things he may say. I see this as if Paz is the one causing the river of blood from the pain. But I’m not completely sure as to who hurts who, and who is the cold one.
ReplyDelete