from Ode to Walt Whitman
Without
disdain
for the gifts
of the earth,
the capital's
abundant curves,
or the purple
initial
of wisdom,
you
taught me
to be an American,
you lifted my eyes
to books,
toward
the treasure
of the grain:
broad poet,
across the
clarity
of the plains,
you made me see
the high mountain
as my guardian.
translated from the Spanish
by Martin Espada
___________________________
Pablo Neruda
