Tonight when I arrived home from the Cape, my new (to me) Tivoli radio had arrived. My model one has finally rattled it’s last breath; it will now be played in the kitchen so the warbling treble does not drive me up a wall in the privacy of my own music time. I even have this time another speaker and a subwoofer, which as the daughter of an audiophile, is simply velvet.
I’ll be eating only lentils for the next four weeks for various reasons.
The first record I played on it when I set it up was from the Benitez-Valencia Trio. It is pure pleasure and sweet heartache. It makes my toes curl. You can download it here. There is an especially lovely song “Si Tu Me Olvidas,” and it reminded me of a Neruda poem. Some friends and I were talking earlier in the afternoon about all the joyful nuance and shimmer that will slip away in translation. Luckily, music suffers less than language with this.
Here, listen as you read. Tell me what you think is lost.
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Si Tu Me Olvidas, Neruda
Quiero que sepas
una cosa. Tú sabes cómo es esto: Ahora bien, Si de pronto Si consideras largo y loco Pero |
If You Forget Me, Neruda
I want you to know
one thing. You know how this is: Well, now, If suddenly If you think it long and mad, But |









I quoted this poem to a girl and she said (referring to quoting Neruda love poems) “Ci este es la voz de todo de los hombres tontos.”.. “yep, this is the voice for all foolish men.”
Who could stand to exist in any other way?