Help with poema analysis: Dulce Maria Loynaz
Could someone help me break down/interpret the meanings in this poem by Dulce Maria Loynaz? I do not mean direct translation i mean deeper connections and interperetations. like, why is he saying this? what does it mean to the world around us? can you help with this? IN ADDITION, what its about in just a single sentence, maybe in spanish - for an extra twist, about what it means so I can write it down? Decided to have a little fun with poetry.
Y primero era el agua:
un agua ronca,
sin respirar de peces, sin orillas
que la apretaran...
Era el agua primero,
sobre un mundo naciendo de la mano de Dios...
Era el agua...
Todavía
la tierra no asomaba entre las olas,
todavía la tierra
sólo era un fango blando y tembloroso...
No había flor de lunas ni racimos
de islas... En el vientre
del agua joven se gestaban continentes...
¡Amanecer del mundo, despertar
del mundo!
¡Qué apagar de fuegos últimos¡
¡Qué mar en llamas bajo el cielo negro¡
Era primero el agua.
4 Answers
There's definitely a sense of nascency, and unspoiled wholeness in this "first water" and even that it's at risk for being dirtied or spoiled by something, created by the hand of god. But there's also the sense that it's uncontrolled and unchallenged ("un agua ronca").
The land, on the other hand, which is the very thing that is suggested to be able to impose itself on the water, seems timid and feeble, or even frightened ("sólo era un fango blando y tembloroso"). Still, despite this big difference in apparent power, water is passive and land acts upon it: Land peeks through water ("asomaba entre las olas"), rather than water separating for land. Land imposes its shores ("sin orillas que se apretaran") rather than the water pulling itself together to create room for it.
Kind of a tall order for land so tremulous, shaky and unformed, especially against this bully-like water.
Then it kind of transitions, at least it seems to me, and the water seems to become less passive and gains purpose. It prompts the land to become what it needs to be. At least that's what I get out of the idea that the water "gestates" the land. Because when done, the land gets to do what it seems meant to do, capable of forming those clusters of islands, and continents that peek through the water and which corral water with its shores.
The significance of the sea in flames under a black sky kind of escapes me, but I am sort of left with the idea that two things often need one another so that both can be what they need to be, and do what they need to do. Because after this happens, dawn comes, and the world awakens. Those verbs are in the infinitive ("amanecer del mundo...despertar del mundo"), so I'll conjecture wildly that it's an intentional thing so the author doesn't attribute the cause to any one actor, when it's the interaction of both that does it.
Wow. Well first of all I am not very advanced at spanish. I think the poet is reflecting on the creation. Genesis 1.1, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." I think the poet is trying to depict how this took place and does so in an interesting way.
"sólo era un fango blando y tembloroso. No había flor de lunas ni racimos de islas"
It was just a soft mud and jittery ..There was no flower, moons or Islands.
Genesis 1: "And the world was without form and void."
The poet continues the story and there is emphasis on the water which fits in with the telling of this event.
Como dicen My Head y Kirk, el poema es la historia de la creación de la tierra, como se dice en Genesis.. la tierra fue creada como una esfera de agua, el primer día...
Y sin duda es verdad, la vida empezó en el agua, si creemos en Dios, o no.
En el vientre del agua joven se gestaban continentes. In the womb of the young water the continents developed.
Where is she from?
