Gabriela Mistral > Quotes

“You shall create beauty not to excite the senses
but to give sustenance to the soul. ”
― Gabriela Mistral

“Love that stammers, that stutters, is apt to be the love that loves best.”
― Gabriela Mistral

“Donde haya un árbol que plantar, plántalo tú. Donde haya un error que enmendar, enmiéndalo tú. Donde haya un esfuerzo que todos esquivan, hazlo tú. Sé tú el que aparta la piedra del camino.”
― Gabriela Mistral

“We are guilty of many errors and many faults, but our worst crime is abandoning the children, neglecting the fountain of life. Many of the things we need can wait. The child cannot. Right now is the time his bones are being formed, his blood is being made, and his senses are being developed. To him we cannot answer ‘Tomorrow,’ his name is today.”
― Gabriela Mistral

“Love beauty; it is the shadow of God on the universe”
― Gabriela Mistral

“A crippled child
Said, "How shall I dance?"
Let your heart dance
We said.

Then the invalid said:
"How shall I sing?"
Let your heart sing
We said

Then spoke the poor dead thistle,
"But I, how shall I dance?"
Let your heart fly to the wind
We said.

Then God spoke from above
"How shall I descend from the blue?"
Come dance for us here in the light
We said.

All the valley is dancing
Together under the sun,
And the heart of him who joins us not
Is turned to dust, to dust.”
― Gabriela Mistral

“Dame señor la fuerza de las olas del mar, que hacen de cada retroceso un nuevo punto de partida”
― Gabriela Mistral

“I am Cassandra—she who, without asking,
understood it all and still came to her fate,
I, Cassandra, full of visions,
who sees her own death without turning away,
and hears in the night the day that follows.”
― Gabriela Mistral, Madwomen: Poems of Gabriela Mistral

“Many things we need can wait. The child cannot. Now is the time his bones are formed, his mind developed. To him we cannot say tomorrow, his name is today.”
― Gabriela Mistral

“I write poetry because I can’t disobey the impulse; it would be like blocking a spring that surges up in my throat. For a long time I’ve been the servant of the song that comes, that appears and can’t be buried away. How to seal myself up now?…It no longer matters to me who receives what I submit. What I carry out is, in that respect, greater and deeper than I, I am merely the channel.”
― Gabriela Mistral

“La educación es, tal vez, la forma más alta de buscar a Dios.”
― Gabriela Mistral

“Besos

Hay besos que pronuncian por sí solos
la sentencia de amor condenatoria,
hay besos que se dan con la mirada
hay besos que se dan con la memoria.

Hay besos silenciosos, besos nobles
hay besos enigmáticos, sinceros
hay besos que se dan sólo las almas
hay besos por prohibidos, verdaderos.

Hay besos que calcinan y que hieren,
hay besos que arrebatan los sentidos,
hay besos misteriosos que han dejado
mil sueños errantes y perdidos.

Hay besos problemáticos que encierran
una clave que nadie ha descifrado,
hay besos que engendran la tragedia
cuantas rosas en broche han deshojado.

Hay besos perfumados, besos tibios
que palpitan en íntimos anhelos,
hay besos que en los labios dejan huellas
como un campo de sol entre dos hielos.

Hay besos que parecen azucenas
por sublimes, ingenuos y por puros,
hay besos traicioneros y cobardes,
hay besos maldecidos y perjuros.

Judas besa a Jesús y deja impresa
en su rostro de Dios, la felonía,
mientras la Magdalena con sus besos
fortifica piadosa su agonía.

Desde entonces en los besos palpita
el amor, la traición y los dolores,
en las bodas humanas se parecen
a la brisa que juega con las flores.

Hay besos que producen desvaríos
de amorosa pasión ardiente y loca,
tú los conoces bien son besos míos
inventados por mí, para tu boca.

Besos de llama que en rastro impreso
llevan los surcos de un amor vedado,
besos de tempestad, salvajes besos
que solo nuestros labios han probado.

¿Te acuerdas del primero...? Indefinible;
cubrió tu faz de cárdenos sonrojos
y en los espasmos de emoción terrible,
llenáronse de lágrimas tus ojos.

¿Te acuerdas que una tarde en loco exceso
te vi celoso imaginando agravios,
te suspendí en mis brazos... vibró un beso,
y qué viste después...? Sangre en mis labios.

Yo te enseñé a besar: los besos fríos
son de impasible corazón de roca,
yo te enseñé a besar con besos míos
inventados por mí, para tu boca.

Este maravilloso poema de Gabriela Mistral, nos describe de una manera muy simple y sentida, una de las grandes expresiones de amor o quizas las principal. Me he tomado el trabajo de narrarlo, asumiendo el riesgo de no ser capaz de transmitir la verdadera intensidad o altura que tienen las palabras de esta destacada artista de las letras.

Lucila de María Godoy Alcayaga, conocida como Gabriela Mistral. Nacida en Vicuña, Chile el 7 de abril de 1889 y fallecida Nueva York, el 10 de enero de 1957, Poetisa, diplomática, y pedagoga. Gabriela Mistral, una de las principales figuras de la literatura chilena y latinoamericana, fue la primera persona de América Latina en ganar el Premio Nobel de Literatura,2 que recibió en 1945.”
― Gabriela Mistral

“Love beauty it is the shadow of God on the universe”
― Gabriela Mistral

“Because she—you hear her—she's calling,
and is always going to call, and it's better
both of us die by the dagger without anyone
seeing us, Orestes, and die a fit death.”
― Gabriela Mistral, Madwomen: Poems of Gabriela Mistral

“Instrúyase a la mujer; que no hay nada en ella que le haga ser colocada en un lugar más bajo que el del hombre. Que lleve una dignidad más al corazón por la vida: la dignidad de la ilustración. Que algo más que la virtud le haga acreedora al respeto, a la admiración, al amor. Tendréis en el bello sexo instruido, menos miserables, menos fanáticas y menos mujeres nulas… Que pueda llegar a valerse por sí sola y deje de ser aquella creatura que agoniza y miseria si el padre, el esposo o el hijo no la amparan.”
― Gabriela Mistral

“Dusk

I feel my heart melting
in the mildness like candles:
my veins are slow oil
and not wine,
and I feel my life fleeing
hushed and gentle like the gazelle.”
― Gabriela Mistral

“Everyone left and we have remained
on a path that goes on without us.”
― Gabriela Mistral, Madwomen: Poems of Gabriela Mistral

“The gods give, like twin flowers,
power and ruin, memory and oblivion.”
― Gabriela Mistral, Madwomen: Poems of Gabriela Mistral

“Some kisses pronounced themselvesthe judgment of conviction love,Some kisses are given with an eyeSome kisses are given with the memory.There are silent kisses, kisses noblesThere enigmatic kisses, sincereSome kisses are given only soulsThere forbidden kisses, true.Some kisses calcined and hurt,Some kisses captivate sensesThere mysterious kisses that have leftthousand wandering and lost dreams.There problematic kisses enclosinga key that no one has decipheredSome kisses engender tragedyfew have defoliated roses brooch.There perfumed kisses, warm kissesthrobbing in intimate longings,Some kisses on the lips leave tracesas a field of sun between two ice.Some kisses seem liliesby sublime, naive and pure,There treacherous and cowardly kisses,There cursed and perjured kisses.Judas kisses Jesus and leaves printin the face of God, felony,while Magdalena with kissesfortifies pious agony.From then kisses throbslove, betrayal and pain,in human weddings they seemthe breeze playing with flowers.There are kisses that produce ravingsloving hot and mad passion,you know them well are my kissesinvented by me, for your mouth.Flame kisses printed on trailThey take the grooves of a forbidden love,kisses storm, wild kissesour lips only been tested.Do you remember the first ...? Indefinable;Your face covered with blushes luridand in the throes of terrible emotion,Your eyes were filled with tears.Do you remember that one evening in excess crazyI saw you jealous imagining grievances,He flunked you in my arms ... a kiss vibrated,and then ... did you see? Blood on my lips.I taught you to kiss: cold kissesThey are impassive rock heart,I taught you how to kiss with my kissesinvented by me, for your mouth”
― Gabriela Mistral

“The night itself is riddled with her,
wide with her, and alive with her.
It seems that it has no word
or other traveler, no other secret sign.”
― Gabriela Mistral, Madwomen: Poems of Gabriela Mistral

“Now what mattered to me no longer matters.”
― Gabriela Mistral, Madwomen: Poems of Gabriela Mistral

“The night itself is riddled with her, wide with her, and alive with her.”
― Gabriela Mistral

“She talks with an accent of savage seas. Her breathing is the breath of the wilderness, she has loved with a passion that makes her blanch, which she never mentions and which would be like the map of another star if she told us.”
― Gabriela Mistral

“I killed a woman in me:
one I did not love.”
― Gabriela Mistral, Madwomen: Poems of Gabriela Mistral

“If ever we two had a soul, let our soul
—keep on walking and leave us behind.”
― Gabriela Mistral, Madwomen: Poems of Gabriela Mistral

“You saw her a hundred times, but not once did you look at her.”
― Gabriela Mistral

“She loved only her lover and Iphigenia
in the narrowness of her cold breast.”
― Gabriela Mistral, Madwomen: Poems of Gabriela Mistral

“If it's all been dream and delirium
may death ripen me in my dream.”
― Gabriela Mistral, Madwomen: Poems of Gabriela Mistral

“y en país sin nombre
me voy a morir”
― Gabriela Mistral

“Like cider and aged wine I was desired,
desired like the sheer blue cascade
that dazzles the eyes of the thirsty.”
― Gabriela Mistral, Madwomen: Poems of Gabriela Mistral