Ode To Broken Things

Things get broken

at home

like they were pushed

by an invisible, deliberate smasher.

It's not my hands

or yours

It wasn't the girls

with their hard fingernails

or the motion of the planet.

It wasn't anything or anybody

It wasn't the wind

It wasn't the orange-colored noontime

Or night over the earth

It wasn't even the nose or the elbow

Or the hips getting bigger

or the ankle

or the air.

The plate broke, the lamp fell

All the flower pots tumbled over

one by one. That pot

which overflowed with scarlet

in the middle of October,

it got tired from all the violets

and another empty one

rolled round and round and round

all through winter

until it was only the powder

of a flowerpot,

a broken memory, shining dust.

And that clock

whose sound

was

the voice of our lives,

the secret

thread of our weeks,

which released

one by one, so many hours

for honey and silence

for so many births and jobs,

that clock also

fell

and its delicate blue guts

vibrated

among the broken glass

its wide heart

unsprung.

Life goes on grinding up

glass, wearing out clothes

making fragments

breaking down

forms

and what lasts through time

is like an island on a ship in the sea,

perishable

surrounded by dangerous fragility

by merciless waters and threats.

Let's put all our treasures together

-- the clocks, plates, cups cracked by the cold --

into a sack and carry them

to the sea

and let our possessions sink

into one alarming breaker

that sounds like a river.

May whatever breaks

be reconstructed by the sea

with the long labor of its tides.

So many useless things

which nobody broke

but which got broken anyway

Ada beberapa hal yang kadang bisa rusak dan tak akan pernah kembali utuh seperti semula. Seperti kisah Murakami dalam Norwegian Woods atau seperti kisah Balthazar Odyssey yang disusun Amien Maalouf. Dan puisi ini ditulis Neruda entah kapan. Tentang hal-hal sepele dan sederhana. Mengenai lampu, piring, bunga dan jam.

Ada beberapa hal yang rusak dan tak akan pernah bisa kembali utuh. Tetapi tak selalu kerusakan itu terjadi karena keinginan. Bukankah segala hal yang rusak adalah konflik. Dan tak pernah ada manusia waras yang menginginkan konflik. Tapi kemudian memang ada beberapa hal yang harus rusak dan memang telah rusak tanpa pernah kita menginginkanya.

So many useless things

which nobody broke

but which got broken anyway