---
title: "Pablo Neruda and Eduardo Langagne: two South American poets who have written movingly of albatrosses"
---

# Pablo Neruda and Eduardo Langagne: two South American poets who have written movingly of albatrosses

[Pablo Neruda](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Neruda) (1904-1973) is a well-known Chilean poet who was awarded the 1971 Nobel Prize for Literature. Probably less-well-known is the Mexican poet [Eduard Langagne](http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_Langagne) (1952- ). What links these two poets from the perspective of the Albatross and Petrel Agreement is not so much that they have composed their works in the Spanish language (which is one of the three ACAP official languages) but that they have both produced poems with albatrosses as a central theme.

  Here is one by Langagne about an albatross trapped aboard a ship, with an English translation from the combined (by myself) efforts of Liliana Ayala and Borja Heredia.

 **Soy el albatros**

 Soy el albatros  
no levanto el vuelo  
l día me quema con su pipa de opio  
La mañana se mofa de mi andar tropezado  
Soy el albatros  
atrapado en la quilla  
Mi anhelo es silencioso  
No puedo alzar el vuelo en la cubierta  
Soy el albatros  
He de abrir estas alas  
Alejarme del barco que me impide volar

 **I am the albatross**

 I am the albatross  
I cannot take flight  
The day burns me with its opium pipe  
Morning teases me about my stumbling walk  
I am the albatross  
Trapped in the keel  
My wishes are silent  
I cannot take off from the deck  
I am the albatross  
I must open these wings  
Away from this boat that will not let me fly.

 ![](https://acap.aq/images/stories/acap/Birds/Albatrosses/W/Wandering/Wandering_Albatross_by_Warwick_Barnes.jpg "Wandering Albatross.  Photograph by Warwick Barnes")

 And here is a short poem by Neruda about the flight of the Wandering Albatross *Diomedea exulans*

 **Oda a un** **Albatros Errante**

 En alta mar navega el viento  
dirigido por el albatros:  
esta es la nave del albatros:  
cruza, desciende, danza, sube,  
se suspende en la luz oscura,  
toca las torres de la ola,  
anida en la hirviente argamasa  
del desordenado element  
mientras la sal lo condecora  
y silba la espuma frenética,  
resbala volando el albatros  
con sus grandes alas de música  
dejando sobre la tormenta  
un libro que sigue volando:  
es el estatuto del viento

 Three translations into English of Neruda's poem to a Wandering Albatross *Diomedea exulans* have been found, which make for interesting comparisons:

 **Ode to a Wandering Albatross**

 The wind blows across the high seas  
guiding the albatross  
that is the course of the albatross:  
crossing, descending, dancing, rising,  
suspended in the darkness,  
touching the towering wave,  
nestling in the boiling mix  
of unruly elements  
as the salt decorates him  
and the frenetic foam whistles,  
the albatross slips by,  
flying with his massive musical wings  
leaving over the storm  
a book that continues to fly:  
it is the state of the wind

 Translation by Mark Tasker

 The wind sails the open sea  
steered by the albatross  
that glides, falls, dances, climbs,  
hangs motionless in the fading light,  
touches the waves' towers,  
settles down in the disorderly element's  
seething mortar  
while the salt crowns it with laurels  
and the furious foam hisses,  
skims the waves  
with its great symphonic wings,  
leaving above the tempest  
a book that flies on forever:  
the statute of the wind.

 From: [http://www.yogitimes.com/article/wandering-albatross/.](http://www.yogitimes.com/article/wandering-albatross/)

 In the high sea the wind navigates  
guided by the albatross:  
that is the ship of the albatross:  
crossing, descending, dancing, rising,  
suspended in the dark light,  
he touches the towers of the wave,  
he nests in the boiling mortar  
of the unruly element  
while the salt decorates him  
and the frenetic foam whistles,  
the albatross slips flying  
with his large wings of music  
leaving over the storm  
a book that continues flying:  
it is the codex of the wind.

 From: [http://archive.greenpeace.org/oceans/piratefishing/albatrosl](http://archive.greenpeace.org/oceans/piratefishing/albatross.html)[http://archive.greenpeace.org/oceans/piratefishing/albatross.html](http://archive.greenpeace.org/oceans/piratefishing/albatross.html)s.html[.](http://archive.greenpeace.org/oceans/piratefishing/albatross.html)

   Listen to a [recitation](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWk2oJJubrc) of a longer albatross poem **Oda a un Albatros Viajero** written by Pablo Neruda.  [Click here](http://www.caphorniers.cl/noticias/poema-neruda/oda_albatros.htm) to read the poem in the original Spanish.

 With thanks to Liliana Ayala, Borja Heredia and Mark Tasker for their translations.

 *John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 7 September 2011*