Keeping Quiet
Now we will count to twelve
and we will all keep still
for once on the face of the earth,
let’s not speak in any language;
let’s stop for a second,
and not move our arms so much.
It would be an exotic moment
without rush, without engines;
we would all be together
in a sudden strangeness.
Fishermen in the cold sea
would not harm whales
and the man gathering salt
would look at his hurt hands.
Those who prepare green wars,
wars with gas, wars with fire,
victories with no survivors,
would put on clean clothes
and walk about with their brothers
in the shade, doing nothing.
What I want should not be confused
with total inactivity.
Life is what it is about;
I want no truck with death.
If we were not so single-minded
about keeping our lives moving,
and for once could do nothing,
perhaps a huge silence
might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves with death.
Perhaps the earth can teach us
as when everything seems dead
and later proves to be alive.
Now I’ll count up to twelve
and you keep quiet and I will go.
Pablo Neruda is a Chilean poet, who started writings poems at the age of 13. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1971.
SEED QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: What does 'do nothing' mean to you? Can you share a personal story of a time you could feel life interrupting sadness as a result of your pausing? How do you reconcile the adage "keep moving on" with the poet's critique of our single-mindedness to keep our lives moving?
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84 Past Reflections
On Nov 24, 2024 Les wrote :
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On Aug 1, 2024 Bryan wrote :
It would be like the movie The Day the Earth stood still
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On May 10, 2024 willow wrote :
"Those who prepare green wars,
wars with gas, wars with fire,"
i like to think he was referring to fart
wars with gas, wars with fire,"
i like to think he was referring to fart
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On Jun 13, 2023 Laura wrote :
It speaks to me of a world that cannot stop - or it will not. Winter shows us that we can pause, be dormant, and live again. We can stop killing, stop harming, stop ignoring and stop anything we choose and there will still be life and worth afterward and when we do stop and still ourselves as a whole, it is like the truest meaning of namaste - of oneness. We are all in the same place together - a momentary place of inaction where we can think, reflect, notice what we are doing to each other and to ourselves.
1 reply: Chess | Post Your Reply
On May 26, 2023 James wrote :
To do nothing starts with pausing for thought then thinking nothing without pause. This poem reminds me of teachings of Jiddhu Krishnamurti 'Freedom from the known.'
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On May 18, 2023 Kristina wrote :
Vipassana of brain. Totally relief. What I felt about this poem
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On Sep 26, 2022 Sahjahan wrote :
Do you think the poet advocates total inactivity and death
2 replies: Susan, Anushka | Post Your Reply
On Sep 15, 2022 Tanish wrote :
Its a highly spiritually charged poem, filled with deep and thought provoking paras about funny urgency of humankind, the rush, the wars and cries which follows them, while focusing on the most profound yet simplest solution to all the unneeded chaos- Silence.. and love beyond the mere relations. So glad poems of this kind are also there in our syllabus. Something worth to read and think about, Pablo Neruda thanks for this.
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On Apr 3, 2022 Mamta Nanda wrote :
This poem seems so pertinent at this time of Invasion of Ukraine. I found it through serendipity just after I heard the news. It continues to inspire me deeply.
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On Nov 13, 2021 Shailly wrote :
Why pablo nerudo believe that stillness is some thing positive?
3 replies: Someone, Abrar, Nancy | Post Your Reply
On Apr 21, 2021 Adriana wrote :
To me, Neruda is explaining why we read poetry. It makes us stop doing for the sake of reflection and appreciation of being and what is being around us. In the wake of the trial and the death we witnessed before that, this poem helps me to restore a sense of calm about living. I want to give a copy of it to everyone I know, and I imagine leaving copies of it in public places. Thank you for giving me this place to receive and a place to leave my response.
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On Jan 9, 2021 Jana wrote :
For me, "doing nothing" is very difficult. I believe that I tend to overcome my anxiety with everlasting business. But I remember my one walk in the park when it was raining. The forest was empty, no people, just I, rain, bushes, and trees. It felt as if I became part of the nature, as if the whole world stopped and cried tears of relief.
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On Dec 3, 2020 Tizz O'Toole wrote :
This is magical. An indrawn breath, counting to 12. Silence is healing. ♥.
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On Oct 12, 2020 Nathan Glen wrote :
Do nothing means sit in the silence. Sit in it and enjoy it. Explore it you might like what you find because the world is all bustle and busy and people seldom take the time to enjoy the silence.
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On Sep 13, 2020 sarah wrote :
Sometimes all it takes for the world to find peace is for us to stop for one second and think. To breathe and think about where we are and where we came from and why we're here. The world is so much greater than what we see it as and we can only get closer to that truth if we take a moment to stop and breathe and think.
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On Aug 28, 2020 Salvatore Liotta wrote :
Western rationalism, science, the STEM subjects, materialism, discursive thought, language alone, cannot find transcendency, the ineffable. Poetry is better suited to enabling humans to see the light of reality, to apprehend a "gestaltic" understanding. Cosmic consciousness beyond historical understanding. Westerners need to continue to face east in order to cobble together a psychology of East as well as West.
Most importantly, humans need to experience an empathic epiphany.
As WB Yeats said: the center does not hold. American needs a vision, a new social contract, a new constitution. It must leap from the despair of Trumpist Fascist Nihilist Psychopathy to Democratic Socialist Humanism.
We need to all row our boat in the same direction, to substitute I-ME-MINE with WE-US-OURS.
We need to transcend the blindness of living in history, in time, to living in Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel's sanctified time.
God save us all.... [View Full Comment]
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On May 30, 2020 Surinder wrote :
Do nothing dosen’t means inactivity, it means that man should be one with the nature. As nature seems to be inactive but it’s actually alive and many processes occur over time. Stop being so selfish and for once in our life sit and observe the beauty in nature and learn from it.
if I am wrong please correct me!😜
if I am wrong please correct me!😜
1 reply: Aishwarya | Post Your Reply
On May 13, 2020 Parth Sarthy Kala wrote :
It's better to sit idle than to harm whales or wage a war or even indulging in self aggrandizement. Do nothing that can lead to conflicts rather turn inwards and introspect. Meditate and calm down
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On May 3, 2020 Maribeth wrote :
Do nothing means be in nature and watch and listen to the birds in the trees or sit by the river where it cascades and notice the slight changes in its babble. Do nothing means stop doing what you are doing that pollutes and destroys our environment or someone else's and take note of nature's implicit beauty acknowledge that no designer, nor artist could create anything more perfect.
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On May 2, 2020 Fran wrote :
Breathing and being. Breathing in and out like the waves on the beach.
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On Apr 18, 2020 John McClenahen wrote :
In silence is the sound of life.
In no one thing exists every thing.
In no one thing exists every thing.
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On Apr 16, 2020 Terrie wrote :
At The End of a busy day, sitting by the edge of an inlet to the sea, at Sunset, when all the land creatures were silent. Such peace.
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On Apr 12, 2020 Hala wrote :
When you are sad you should relax and don't think about to much.
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On Apr 8, 2020 Shor D wrote :
Indescribably beautiful and soul soothing! Yes, the Earth shall teach us! We are realising it each day now! What seemed inconceivable a month ago is gradually falling into a pattern,turning into a way of life! We are treading uncharted paths and though painful in some ways, seems so utterly natural to follow!
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On Apr 5, 2020 Tere Doeb wrote :
Every time I pause, I think of my father who is no longer with us. It pervades my entire being. Tough to pause right now though as I feel so fragile. We're all feeling fragile, yes?
Neruda's words, though, are comforting and ground me. They remind me of what is really important, especially now.
Neruda's words, though, are comforting and ground me. They remind me of what is really important, especially now.
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On Apr 1, 2020 Mark Carlson wrote :
I'd love to know who did the translation. Does anyone know?
1 reply: Roger | Post Your Reply
On Mar 30, 2020 Jesus wrote :
This poem fits this moment of time in a way because of how everyone has to stop for a second because of COVID
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On Mar 28, 2020 Fran Wood wrote :
I cannot say what the impact of this lovely poem might have been a month ago, but today it settled on me like a soft mantle of tranquility. A powerful elixir for this moment in time.
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On Mar 26, 2020 Luci N Shaw wrote :
Doing nothing. It's a challenge to adapt to a radically different way of being. Perhaps the pause allows what has been quenched or hidden to show its head, like a bulb breaking from the earth, so that a novel kind of insight and reflection is allowed to flourish. To read poems.To write your own. The incomparable music of choirs, orchestras, solos. Creative fiction that opens up some wide window in your thinking. I'm reading Louise Erdrich, Dorothy Sayers, Garrison Keillor's collection of "Good Poems." The poems of Carolyn Forche, just published. The New Yorker. The Plough. Sojourners. A good start, don't you think?
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On Mar 25, 2020 Elaine Brown wrote :
I sat in my garden and read this beautiful poem. Just me and the birdsong and the gently breeze. Breath of life.
1 reply: Henry | Post Your Reply
On Mar 24, 2020 Ginger wrote :
So beautiful...and so needed. If we could find the inner peace we could begin to make peace with others and together with our world.
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On Mar 24, 2020 kate wrote :
Please can you tell me the original title of tis poem - I want to read it in Spanish. thank you
1 reply: Roger | Post Your Reply
On Mar 22, 2020 G.jayalakshmi wrote :
Excellent poem for the people in the world.From begining to end tho words are spelt like a fountain.I enjoyed the poem.Very. many thanks for Bharathi Sadasivam to select and shared this Facebook.
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On Mar 22, 2020 Cynthia Hanken wrote :
Laurie,
Thank you for this. It's just what I needed to hear right now.
Thank you for this. It's just what I needed to hear right now.
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On Mar 22, 2020 Disha Ror wrote :
When I had read this poem in school, I used to think that it would be fun to stop all such things, but today, due to covid 19, it seems so bad too bad
1 reply: Ashis | Post Your Reply
On Mar 20, 2020 Mini lal wrote :
Blessed are those who have a quiet life with apparent stillness as they are not surrounded by life threatening conditions.The awakening which Pablo reflects through his poetry is the only vital need of the hour to get synthesised into one whole reality that human race is one entity,has one identity ant the Planet Earth is the only Home for them.Sitting by the side of my ailing sister at a Cancer hospital has humbled me enough to comprehend the significance of LIFE itself which must be respected and valued. Sincere appreciation for Neruda.
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On Mar 19, 2020 Rajshree wrote :
This is the Quietude of The SOUL of the World, the silence of the Shepherd and the Sheep, the silence that rings a note of Selfless Silence that'll bind humans animals & plants together as residents of good earth in an urgent urge to live let live & love....
Neruda was a Brilliant poet...
Relevant forever .
Neruda was a Brilliant poet...
Relevant forever .
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On Mar 19, 2020 Ted Mayer wrote :
Beautiful poem, and I'm grateful you've reminded me of it. There is an error in the translation given here, following "whales." It should read (following the Spanish original): "and the man gathering salt / would look at his hurt hands." Neruda's idea here is that the man gathering salt would have a moment's rest, in which he would notice and look at his hands that are hurt by the work he does.
2 replies: Lb, K | Post Your Reply
On May 21, 2019 Peggy wrote :
Why did you change the masculine form to feminine in the poem? For example the original was ""son sus hermanos" rather than hermanas. Also "todas estariamos juntas" rather than juntos.
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On Apr 29, 2019 Isidora isis wrote :
his words are food for our soul, constantly fighting through the battle of personhood
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On Mar 30, 2019 Mark David Vinzens wrote :
Pablo Neruda is not just a man who wrote poetry. He is the song of the world soul.
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On May 30, 2018 Ashok Kumar wrote :
Amazing gift of writing by this Nobel laureate writer. His wordings in second last paragraph 'sadness of never understanding ourselves...' touch a chord. Thanks to Nipun family to share this amazing writing.
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On May 27, 2018 Jagdish P Dave wrote :
Poet Pablo Neurada remins me of a poem written by an anonymus Zen master.
Sitting by the river
Doing nothing,
Spring comes
The grass grows by itself.
Such words of wisdom have been sign posts in my life, a daily rrminder to count up to twelwe, be in the zone of being, letting go of my busy and often noisy world of doing and having. Such words rmind me to pause, feel and be with my natural rhythm of life giving and life sustaining breath, to count up to twelve, ... [View Full Comment]
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On May 26, 2018 david doane wrote :
In reading this passage, some of my favorite quotes come to mind. Rumi said, "Silence is the language of God, all else is a poor translation." According to Pascal, "All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone." And Lin Yutang's "If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live." 'Do nothing' means to me to do no thing, and simply be mindfully present. I allowed life to interrupt sadness when I paused to sit in my back yard, took in the beauty of nature, settled into it, felt together with it, and felt soothed and nurtured by it. Such moments are an example of 'keep on moving' by being goallessly present in the flow of life which is very different than keeping our lives moving by determined goal-direct effort.
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On May 25, 2018 Kristin Pedemonti wrote :
Perfect timing, thank you. Do nothing means to stop and sit and be. I am in this exact position today as I take a break from what can be a "go getter" "overachiever" energy in Washington DC. I sit here alone at my friends' home in the Catskills, trees surround the house which sits near the Hudson River. I look out into trees, eye level with them. I have had the gift of 2 full nights and days alone here before everyone else arrives and i am grateful. I am literally moving through sadness, in a depressive episode which has been quite intense. "Moving through" has been mostly a saving grace as in "this too shall pass." At the same time, I wish to sit and be qiet to allow myself to heal, my mind to still and my body to do so as well. I slept until 10am with no apology. Today I had planned on visiting a Victorian mansion, the home of an artist, but instead, perhaps I will only walk to the river, sit on a bench and breathe. It is OK to simply breathe rather than constant movement. Rec... [View Full Comment]