{"id":471,"date":"2009-10-09T22:16:13","date_gmt":"2009-10-09T22:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/nucleus-import\/?p=471"},"modified":"2009-10-09T22:16:13","modified_gmt":"2009-10-09T22:16:13","slug":"review-of-a-poem-by-carlos-drummond-de-andrade-mahnaz-badihian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/review-of-a-poem-by-carlos-drummond-de-andrade-mahnaz-badihian\/","title":{"rendered":"review of a poem by”\u2014Carlos Drummond de Andrade”\/Mahnaz badihian"},"content":{"rendered":"
mahnaz badihian<\/div>\n

\nAs a reader of poetry you always find poets that you can emotionally connect with and feel a specific excitement reading the feelings the poets put down on paper. …<\/p>\n

Poem: Your Shoulders Hold Up the World from the collection Looking for Poetry
\nTranslated by Mark Strand<\/p>\n

\u201cYOUR SHOULDERS HOLD UP THE WORLD
\n\u2014Carlos Drummond de Andrade
\n
\nA time comes when you no longer can say: my God.
\nA time of total cleaning up.
\nA time when you no longer can say: my love.
\nBecause love proved useless.
\nAnd the eyes don’t cry.
\nAnd the hands do only rough work.
\nAnd the heart is dry.<\/p>\n

Women knock at your door in vain, you won’t open.
\nYou remain alone, the light turned off,
\nand your enormous eyes shine in the dark.
\nIt is obvious you no longer know how to suffer.
\nAnd you want nothing from your friends.<\/p>\n

Who cares if old age comes, what is old age?
\nYour shoulders are holding up the world
\nand it’s lighter than a child’s hand.
\nWars, famine, family fights inside buildings
\nprove only that life goes on
\nand not everybody has freed himself yet.
\nSome (the delicate ones) judging the spectacle cruel
\nwill prefer to die.
\nA time comes when death doesn’t help.
\nA time comes when life is an order.
\nJust life, without any escapes.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a reader of poetry you always find poets that you can emotionally connect with and feel a specific excitement reading the feelings the poets put down on paper. For many years I read poems by Carlos Drummond de Andrade, the Brazilian national poet. I loved those poems so much. I spent a great deal of time translating them into the Persian language. One of those poems is Your Shoulders Hold up the World. To begin with, just the name intrigues my imagination, conjuring images of the strength that could be possible to carry all heavy problems on human shoulders. The poem starts with a strong, shocking line,
\n\u201cA time comes when you no longer can say; my God.\u201d
\nThe excitement of the first line is continued with an even more shocking next line,
\n\u201cA time when you no longer can say: my love. Because love proved useless. And the eyes don\u2019t cry.\u201d
\nAt this point the reader can think of no other words to use to convey such an immense pain in the human heart, but the poet writes:
\n\t\u201cThe heart is dry.\u201d
\nBy saying this line he means to convey disappointment, difficulties, numbness, lack of desire, lack of friendship, lack of wanting, and the list in your head goes on. Even by now, having gone through the first stanza of this poem, I feel satisfied that indeed this is an exciting poem, and I wait to see what the next two stanzas will bring. His use of metaphor is so artistic that you decide to trust whatever Carlos says and stay out of any arguments with him. He uses the word \u201cworld\u201d in this poem as a metaphor for the heavy burdens that come with human life which build and grow larger over time. The word \u201cworld\u201d can be interpreted as personal problems or universal human problems. His use of \u201cshoulder\u201d in this poem refers to the human\u2019s ability and strength to handle the burdens. Then Carlos quantifies this human ability and strength through the use of simile; all the difficulties weigh only as much as a child\u2019s hand on a shoulder.
\n \u201cYour shoulders are holding up the world and it\u2019s lighter than a child\u2019s hand.\u201d
\nCarlos indirectly tells us of the human problems such as depression, loneliness and human conflict.
\n\u201cWomen knock at your door in vain, you won\u2019t open. You remain alone, the light turned off, and your enormous eyes shine in the dark.\u201d
\nWhen he says you won\u2019t open the door, it tells us he is unable to emotionally open the door although he is in the house gloomy and alone. The use of \u201cyou won\u2019t open\u201d is a way to refer to a feeling of depression more than anything, or getting used to one\u2019s loneliness. Or even it is a reference to one\u2019s decision to stay away from others due to many reasons, one being the fact human beings habitually harm each other. We readers even get the sense that he is referring to tensions between men and women by the use of the term \u201cwomen\u201d. These tensions seem to cause suffering when he says,
\n\t\u201cIt is obvious you no longer know how to suffer.\u201d
\nWith this line he admits that there is undeniable suffering in life. He then tells us that suffering requires some skill and in this case he has lost that skill.
\nThis poem then asks the reader to philosophize about life by asking,
\n\u201cWho cares if old age comes, what is old age?\u201d
\nI completely agree with Carlos. What is old age? The answer for me is as long as I am alive, I am young and when I die, I am old. People take up a lot of time in life thinking about old age and aging. But we have to ask ourselves, when exactly does old age start? Where is the borderline between youth and old age? Isn\u2019t that in a person\u2019s mind and a certain way of life? Carlos is right, who cares if and when old age comes. Because according to Carlos, your strong shoulders should assume the world and the
\nworld\u2019s problems should weigh as much as a child\u2019s hand. This also gives us perspective on the poet\u2019s view of the human ability to handle crisis. Carlos continues by reminding us that all the problems of human stupidity like wars and fights will be present forever, because it has been for centuries and human beings have not freed themselves from it, and will likely not.
\n\u201cWars, famine, family fights inside buildings prove only that life goes on and not everybody has freed himself yet.\u201d
\nCarlos ends the poem with a huge disappointing thought that human problems are so enormous that even in death some of your problems will continue.
\n\u201cA time comes when death doesn\u2019t help. A time comes when life is an order. Just life, without any escape.\u201d
\nIt is clear that the poet of these lines is disappointed with human wrong doing, and his philosophical mind beautifully explains the misery of life. There is no escape and there are times when living is an order and not a choice that we can make. <\/p>\n

<\/b>
\nMahnaz badihiam
\nwww.mahmag.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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