Saturday, September 4, 2010

The Sea Anemone, with Help from Neruda


Anemona

La flor del penasco salado
abre y cancela su corona
por la voluntad de la sal,
por el apitito de aqua.

O corola de carne fria
y de pistilos vibradores
anemona viuda, intestino.
--Pablo Neruda
The Sea Anemone

The Flower of the salty boulder
open and cancels its crown
by the will of salt
with water's appetite.

Oh corolla of cold flesh
and vibrating pistils,
widow-anenome, intestine.
-Pablo Neruda

--from Neruda at Isla Negra: Poems by Pablo Neruda, edited by Dennis Maloney, translations by Maria Jacketti, Dennis Maloney, and Clark Zlotchew. White Pine Press: Freedonia, New York. 1998.

My photographs of Anthopleura xanthogrammica, or the Giant Green Anemone, were taken in the surge channels off the actual point at Lover's Point, Pacific Grove, CA.