Oda al Gato
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Oda al Gato (Ode to the Cat) is a poem by the chilean poet and Nobel laureate, Pablo Neruda from his book "Navegaciones y regresos" (Voyages and Homecomings) that was first published in Buenos Aires, Argentina by Losado in 1959. The ode that celebrates the obscure nature of cats has been translated by many scholars including Ken Krabbenhoft.
Neruda’s “Ode to the cat” poem has been used in Jazz music festivals and was also used in the Poetry in Motion project in New York City; where public trains and buses carried verses of selected poems, on spaces normally reserved for commercial advertisement.
[edit] Ode to the Cat (Oda al gato)
The animals
were imperfect,
long-tailed, dismal
in the head.
Little by little
they composed themselves,
becoming a landscape,
gaining spots, grace, flight.
The cat,
only the cat,
appeared complete
and proud:
born completely
finished,
it walks alone and knows what it wants.
...
(from a version by Linh Dinh)
