soneto xvii

por Pablo Neruda

No te amo como si fueras rosa de sal, topacio
o flecha de claveles que propagan el fuego:
te amo como se aman ciertas cosas oscuras,
secretamente, entre la sombra y el alma.

Te amo como la planta que no florece y lleva
dentro de sí, escondida, la luz de aquellas flores,
y gracias a tu amor vive oscuro en mi cuerpo
el apretado aroma que ascendió de la tierra.

Te amo sin saber cómo, ni cuándo, ni de dónde,
te amo directamente sin problemas ni orgullo:
así te amo porque no sé amar de otra manera,

sino así de este modo en que no soy ni eres,
tan cerca que tu mano sobre mi pecho es mía,
tan cerca que se cierran tus ojos con mi sueño.

i love reading

I just finished a very good non-fiction book, Zeitoun, by Dave Eggers.

It is one of those books that makes you hate America, just a little. Sometimes this country seems so monumentally ridiculous. Broken, really.

Lately I've been thinking a lot, Maybe I should move to Hopenhagen.

(Hopenhagen being the name given to Copenhagen in an advertising campaign "in support" of the UN Climate Change Conference.)

Anyway. Oprah says it's the happiest city in the world. Or something like that.

It's hard sometimes not to be upset about injustice or human rights violations or natural disasters and the bureaucratic disasters that invariably follow. I think what bothers me the most is this widespread, malignant facet of human behavior that I just do not understand: lack of empathy and compassion for the suffering of other human beings. I was under the impression- erroneously, apparently- that that sort of thing is intrinsic and ingrained.

I don't know why I ever assumed that considering the entire course of human history, the preponderance of evidence. Still, though. It just seems wrong, an aberration.

It's the whole us v. them thing. The other. Dehumanization. All that noise. Somehow people can detach themselves from compassion. I don't get it, though.

I just don't.

n'year

In one years time, when I am looking back on 2010, I know I will want to know what I was doing at this point in time.

For the record:

I just finished ASL 3 and ASL to English 1.

I just started dating a lovely, lovely girl.

My life is pretty fucking great.

This break has been wonderful.

This semester was hard, but I persevered, as I am wont to do.

Good times.