Give me, for my life, all lives, give me all the pain of everyone, I'm going to turn it into hope. Give me all the joys, even the most secret, because otherwise how will these things be known? I have to tell them, give me the labors of everyday, for that's what I sing.
Interpretation
The quote expresses a desire to embrace the full spectrum of human experience to inspire hope and understanding.
In this quote, Pablo Neruda conveys a profound wish to experience the pain and joys of all lives, suggesting that it is through understanding the depths of human suffering and happiness that true hope can emerge. By asking for the 'labors of everyday,' he emphasizes the importance of everyday struggles and joys in weaving the narrative of life, which he seeks to share through his poetry, highlighting the connection between personal experience and collective human emotion.
In practice
This quote can be used to inspire a community gathering focused on emotional sharing and healing.
Perhaps this war will pass like the others which divided us leaving us dead, killing us along with the killers but the shame of this time puts its burning fingers to our faces. Who will erase the ruthlessness hidden in innocent blood?
I want to see the thirst inside the syllables I want to touch the fire in the sound: I want to feel the darkness of the cry. I want words as rough as virgin rocks.β - Verb.
Only do not forget, if I wake up crying it's only because in my dream I'm a lost child hunting through the leaves of the night for your hands.
And here am I, budding among the ruins with only sorrow to bite on, as if weeping were a seed and I the earth's only furrow.
Once more I am the silent one who came out of the distance wrapped in cold rain and bells: I owe to earth's pure death the will to sprout.
I learned about life from life itself, love I learned in a single kiss and could teach no one anything except that I have lived with something in common among men.
The nurse is temporarily the consciousness of the unconscious, the love of life of the suicidal, the leg of the amputee, the eyes of the newly blind, a means of locomotion for the newborn , knowledge and confidence for the young mother, a voice for those too weak to speak, and so on.
won't you celebrate with me what i have shaped into a kind of life? i had no model. born in babylon both nonwhite and woman what did i see to be except myself? i made it up here on this bridge between starshine and clay, my one hand holding tight my other hand; come celebrate with me that everyday something has tried to kill me and has failed.
All men die, but not all men really live.
If time were a bolt of cloth,β said Om, βI would cut out all the bad parts. Snip out the scary nights and stitch together the good parts, to make time bearable. Then I could wear it like a coat, always live happily.
The person may have a scar, but it also means they have a story
Hip-hop saved my life, man. It's the only thing I've ever been even decent at. I don't know how to do anything else.
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