"Epithalamium" - by the magnificent Pablo Neruda

Definition of epithalamium:


"Epithalamium, also spelled epithalamion or epithalamy, song or poem to the bride and bridegroom at their wedding. In ancient Greece, the singing of such songs was a traditional way of invoking good fortune on the marriage and often of indulging in ribaldry. By derivation, the epithalamium should be sung at the marriage chamber; but the word is also used for the song sung during the wedding procession, containing repeated invocations to Hymen (Hymenaeus), the Greek god of marriage. No special metre has been associated with the epithalamium either in antiquity or in modern times. Among the Romans a similar custom was in vogue, but the song was sung by girls only, after the marriage guests had gone, and it contained much more of what modern morality would condemn as obscene. In the hands of the poets the epithalamium was developed into a special literary form, and received considerable cultivation. Sappho, Anacreon, Stesichorus and Pindar are all regarded as masters of the species, but the finest example preserved in Greek literature is the 18th Idyll of Theocritus, which celebrates the marriage of Menelaus and Helen."




"Epithalamium" - Pablo Neruda


Do you remember when
in winter
we reached the island?
The sea raised toward us
a crown of cold.
On the walls the climbing vines
murmured letting
dark leaves fall
as we passed.
You too were a little leaf
that trembled on my chest.
Life's wind put you there.
At first I did not see you: I did not know
that you were walking with me,
until your roots
pierced my chest
joined the threads of my blood
spoke through my mouth
flourished with me.
Thus was your inadvertent presence
invisible leaf or branch
and suddenly my heart was filled with fruits and sounds
You occupied the house
that darkly awaited you
and then you lit the lamps.

...

the island of stone and moss
echoed in the secret of its grottoes
like the song in your mouth
and the flower that was born
between the crevices of the stone
with its secret syllable
spole, as it passed, your name
of blazing plant
and the steep rock raised
like the wall of the world,
knew my song, well beloved,
and all things spoke of
your love, my love, beloved
because earth, time, sea, island
life, tide
the seed that half opens
its lips in the earth
the devouring flower
the movement of spring
everything recognizes us.
Our love was born
outside the walls
in the wind
in the night
in the earth
and that's why the clay and the flower
the mud and the roots
know your name
and know that my mouth
joined yours
because we were sown together in the earth
and we alone did not know it
and that we grow together
and flower together
and therefore
when we pass
your name is on the petals
of the rose that grows on the stone,
my name is in the grottoes
They know it all
we have no secrets
we have grown together
but we did not know it.
The sea knows our love, the stones
of the rocky height
know that our kisses flowered
with infinite purity
as in their crevices a scarlet
mouth dawns
just as our love and the kiss
that joins your mouth and mine
in an eternal flower.
My love,
sweet spring,
flower and sea, surround us.
We did not change it
for our winter
when the wind
began to decipher your name
and today at all hours it repeats
when
the leaves did not know
that you were a leaf
when
the roots did not know that you were seeking me
in my breast.
Love, love,
spring
offers us the sky
but the dark earth
is our name
our love belongs to all time and the earth.
Loving each other, my arm
beneath your neck of sand
we shall wait
as earth and time change
on the island
as the leaves fall
from the silent climbing vines
as autumn departs
through the broken window.
But we
are going to wait for
our friend
our red-eyed friend
the fire,
when the wind again
shakes the frontiers of the island
and does not know the names of everyone
winter
will seek us, my love
always
it will seek us, because we know it
because we do not fear it
because have
with us
fire
forever,
spring with us
forever
and when a leaf
falls
from the climbing vines
you know, my love
what name is written o
on that leaf,
a names that is yours and mine
our love name, a single
being, the arrow
that pierced winter
the invincible love
the fire of the days
a leaf
that dropped upon my breast
a leaf from the tree
of life
that made a nest and sang
that put out roots
that gave flowers and fruits.
And so you see, my love,
how I move around the island
around the world
safe in the midst of spring
crazy with light in the cold
walking tranquil in the fire
lifting your petal
weight in my arms
as if I had never walked
excpet with you, my heart
as if I could not walk
except with you
as if I could not sing
except when you sing.