SPOKEN WORD + MUSIC
NERUDA SONETOS
PRODUCED AND PERFORMED BY ELYSE HART
Source Text: Cien Sonetos de Amor by Pablo Neruda
This project features a sonic reimagining of two sonnets from Pablo Neruda’s Cien Sonetos de Amor. Produced and recorded in Ableton Live, the works function as a bridge between Chilean romantic poetry and contemporary electronic improvisation.
TECHNICAL PRODUCTION
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MIDI Orchestration: Virtual instrumentation includes nylon-string guitar, Wurlitzer, and wooden blocks.
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Vocal Production: Recorded and processed vocal layers, using digital effects to mirror the emotional gravity of the Spanish text.
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Sound Design: Integrated MIDI-based textures and synthesis to create a lush, atmospheric backdrop for the spoken and sung word.
Sabrás que no te amo y que te amo \ puesto que de dos modos es la vida, \ la palabra es un ala del silencio, \ el fuego tiene una mitad de frío.
Yo te amo para comenzar a amarte, \ para recomenzar el infinito \ y para no dejar de amarte nunca: \ por eso no te amo todavía.
Te amo y no te amo como si tuviera \ en mis manos las llaves de la dicha \ y un incierto destino desdichado.
Mi amor tiene dos vidas para armarte. \ Por eso te amo cuando no te amo \ y por eso te amo cuando te amo.
[ENGLISH TRANSLATION]
You must know that I do not love and that I love you, \ because everything alive has its two sides; \ a word is one wing of the silence, \ fire has its cold half.
I love you in order to begin to love you, \ to start infinity again \ and never to stop loving you: \ that's why I do not love you yet.
I love you, and I do not love you, as if I held \ keys in my hand: to a future of joy--- \ a wretched, muddled fate---
My love has two lives, in order to love you: \ that's why I love you when I do not love you, \ and also why I love you when I do.
Antes de amarte, amor, nada era mío: \ vacilé por las calles y las cosas: \ nada contaba ni tenía nombre: \ el mundo era del aire que esperaba.
Yo conocí salones cenicientos, \ túneles habitados por la luna,
hangares crueles que se despedían, \ preguntas que insistían en la arena.
Todo estaba vacío, muerto y mudo, \ caído, abandonado y decaído, \ todo era inalienablemente ajeno,
todo era de los otros y de nadie, \ hasta que tu belleza y tu pobreza \ llenaron el otoño de regalos.
[ENGLISH TRANSLATION]
Before I loved you, love, nothing was my own: \I wavered through the streets, \ among Objects: \ Nothing mattered or had a name:
\ The world was made of air, which waited.
I knew rooms full of ashes, \ Tunnels where the moon lived, \ Rough warehouses that growled 'get lost', \ Questions that insisted in the sand.
Everything was empty, dead, mute, \ Fallen abandoned, and decayed: \ Inconceivably alien, it all
Belonged to someone else - to no one: \ Till your beauty and your poverty \ Filled the autumn plentiful with gifts.
