Poem: 'Lives' by Pablo Neruda

Pablo Neruda (1904-1973), whose real name is Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto was born in Parral, Chile. He was a fierily political poet and an activist, whose poetry was enriched with the action of an elemental force and could bring alive a continent's destiny and dreams. His love poems also had a special appeal of its own: Veinte poemas de amor y una cancion desesperada ("Twenty Love Poems and a song of Despair, 1924), Cien sonetos de amor ("A hundred love sonnets", 1959). Pablo Neruda was awarded the nobel Prize in Literature in the year 1971.

The following poem is taken from "The Captain's Verses (1953)", translated by Donald D. Walsh.

LIVES

Ah how ill at ease sometimes
I feel you are
with me, victor among men!

Because you do not know
that with me were victorious
thousands of faces that you can not see,
thousands of feet and hearts that marched with me,
that I am not.
that I do not exist,
that I am only the front of those who go with me,
that I am stronger
because I bear in me
not my little life
but all the lives,
and I walk steadily forward
because I have a thousand eyes,
I strike the stone heavily
because I have a thousand hands
and my voice is heard on the shores
of all the lands
because it is the voice of all
those who did not speak,
of those who did not sing
and who sing today with this mouth
that kisses you.