Photo 100
Raymond Elstad – Instructor

Final Assignment

For this project you will get together with your classmates and discuss amongst yourselves how you would like to proceed in the illustration of the following poem by Pablo Neruda which was found in the book ‘Extravangaria’, a bilingual edition, translated by Alistair Reid. Pablo Neruda won the Nobel Laureate for Literature in 1971.

Procedure:

As aforementioned you will discuss amongst yourselves as to how to illustrate the following poem. You will be required to produce, mount and turn in, in an envelope 4 prints illustrating the poem. This project is due on the last day of class.

Sobre mi mal educacion (On my bad education)

By Pablo Neruda

Which is which, which is how,
Who knows how to behave?

How natural fish seem!
they never appear to be out of order.
in the sea, they look like guests,
and always dress correctly,
never a scale too few,
bemedeled by the water.

But I – every day I put
not only my feet on my plate
but my elbows too, and my kidneys,
my lyre, my soul and my shotgun.

I don’t know what to do with my hands,
and have thought of coming without them,
but where do I put my ring?
What feeble uncertainty!

And ultimately, I know no one.
I don’t remember names.
You seem familiar to me.
are you not a smuggler?
And you, Madam, aren’t you the lover
of the alcoholic poet
who walked and walked endlessly,
aimlessly over the rooftops?
He flew because he had wings.
And you go on being earthbound.
I should like to have delivered her
like an Indian widow to a great furnace.
could we not burn her now?
It would be breathtaking!

Another time, in an embassy.
I fell in love with a brunette.
She would not undress there
and I was rough on her –
are you mad, my wild statue,
how can you move in your clothes?

They banished me brutally
from that and from other gatherings,
and if by mistake I approached,
they closed windows and doors.

I went then with gypsies
and with magicians,
sailors without ships,
fishermen with no fish,
but all of them had their rules,
unyielding protocol and my wretched education
brought me to a bad end.

So I neither go nor come
neither dress nor walk naked.
In the well, I dropped the forks,
the spoons and the knives.
I smile only at myself,
never ask indiscreet questions,
and when they come to bring me
to banquets, with great pomp,
I send my clothes – my shoes,
my shirt and my hat –
but even that does not please them:
my suit forgot its tie. 

So, to be free of doubts,
I settled for an honorable life,
as actively lazy as possible.
I purified my intentions,
went out to dine alone with myself,
and so I left, keeping my silence.
sometimes I asked myself to dance
but without much enthusiasm,
and I bedded alone, not wanting to,
so as not to mistake my room.

Goodbye, because here I am arriving.

Good morning, I’m off in a hurry.

When they wish to see me, now they know –
they must look for me where I am not,
and if they have voice and time left over,
they can have a talk with my portrait.