Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Octavio Paz: Mexican poet, teacher, and diplomat

He published his first poem at the age of 17

  • The Street
  • Here is a long and silent street.
  • I walk in blackness and I stumble and fall
  • and rise, and I walk blind, my feet
  • trampling the silent stones and the dry leaves.
  • Someone behind me also tramples, stones, leaves:
  • if I slow down, he slows;
  • if I run, he runs I turn: nobody.
  • Everything dark and doorless,
  • only my steps aware of me,
  • I turning and turning among these corners
  • which lead forever to the street
  • where nobody waits for, nobody follows me,
  • where I pursue a man who stumbles
  • and rises and says when he sees me: nobody. 
  • Summit and Gravity
  • There’s a motionless tree
  • And another one coming forward
  • A river of trees
  • Hits my chest
  • The green surge
  • Is good fortune
  • You are dressed in red
  • You are
  • The seal of the scorched year
  • The carnal firebrand
  • The star fruit
  • In you like sun
  • The hour rests
  • Above an abyss of clarities
  • The height is clouded by birds
  • Their beaks construct the night
  • Their wings carry the day
  • Planted in the crest of light
  • Between firmness and vertigo
  • You are
  • Transparent balance.
  • Axis
  • Through the conduits of blood
  • my body in your body
  • spring of night
  • my tongue of sun in your forest
  • your body a kneading trough
  • I red wheat
  • Through conduits of bone
  • I night I water
  • I forest that moves forward
  • I tongue
  • I body
  • I sun-bone
  • Through the conduits of night
  • spring of bodies
  • You night of wheat
  • you forest in the sun
  • you waiting water
  • you kneading trough of bones
  • Through the conduits of sun
  • my night in your night
  • my sun in your sun
  • my wheat in your kneading trough
  • your forest in my tongue
  • Through the conduits of the body
  • water in the night
  • your body in my body
  • Spring of bones
  • Spring of suns 
Octavio Paz

Octavio Paz (1914-1998) was a Mexican poet and winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize in Literature. Besides writing and teaching, Paz also served as a Mexican diplomat in the early 1940s with assignments in New York, Paris, India, Tokyo and Geneva. Influenced by his grandfather’s extensive library, Paz became enamored with literature and began writing verse as a teen. He published his first poem at the age of 17 and his first volume of verse when he was 19. Many of his poems address and engage the tensions present in Mexico’s national identity as well as those present in human relationships, especially between the sexes.

Sponsored
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

San Diego's Uptown Planners challenged by renters from Vibrant Uptown

Two La Jolla planning groups fight for predominance
Next Article

2024 continues to impress with yellowfin much closer to San Diego than they should be

New rockfish regulations coming this week as opener approaches
  • The Street
  • Here is a long and silent street.
  • I walk in blackness and I stumble and fall
  • and rise, and I walk blind, my feet
  • trampling the silent stones and the dry leaves.
  • Someone behind me also tramples, stones, leaves:
  • if I slow down, he slows;
  • if I run, he runs I turn: nobody.
  • Everything dark and doorless,
  • only my steps aware of me,
  • I turning and turning among these corners
  • which lead forever to the street
  • where nobody waits for, nobody follows me,
  • where I pursue a man who stumbles
  • and rises and says when he sees me: nobody. 
  • Summit and Gravity
  • There’s a motionless tree
  • And another one coming forward
  • A river of trees
  • Hits my chest
  • The green surge
  • Is good fortune
  • You are dressed in red
  • You are
  • The seal of the scorched year
  • The carnal firebrand
  • The star fruit
  • In you like sun
  • The hour rests
  • Above an abyss of clarities
  • The height is clouded by birds
  • Their beaks construct the night
  • Their wings carry the day
  • Planted in the crest of light
  • Between firmness and vertigo
  • You are
  • Transparent balance.
  • Axis
  • Through the conduits of blood
  • my body in your body
  • spring of night
  • my tongue of sun in your forest
  • your body a kneading trough
  • I red wheat
  • Through conduits of bone
  • I night I water
  • I forest that moves forward
  • I tongue
  • I body
  • I sun-bone
  • Through the conduits of night
  • spring of bodies
  • You night of wheat
  • you forest in the sun
  • you waiting water
  • you kneading trough of bones
  • Through the conduits of sun
  • my night in your night
  • my sun in your sun
  • my wheat in your kneading trough
  • your forest in my tongue
  • Through the conduits of the body
  • water in the night
  • your body in my body
  • Spring of bones
  • Spring of suns 
Octavio Paz

Octavio Paz (1914-1998) was a Mexican poet and winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize in Literature. Besides writing and teaching, Paz also served as a Mexican diplomat in the early 1940s with assignments in New York, Paris, India, Tokyo and Geneva. Influenced by his grandfather’s extensive library, Paz became enamored with literature and began writing verse as a teen. He published his first poem at the age of 17 and his first volume of verse when he was 19. Many of his poems address and engage the tensions present in Mexico’s national identity as well as those present in human relationships, especially between the sexes.

Sponsored
Sponsored
Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Nation’s sexy soldiers stage protest at Pendleton in wake of change in Marine uniform policy

Semper WHY?
Next Article

Making Love to Goats, Rachmaninoff, and Elgar

Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.