Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Ode to Typography

This was my first attempt at Valentina's "reinvent" weekword last week. As soon as I'd finished it, I realised that I was not reinventing the keyboard, I was repurposing it, i.e. creating another use for it. But I spent the better part of an hour on this first interpretation, and I just hate wasted effort. (And wasted time.) So I thought I would post it today. And also because I love the poem this comes from. And also because I need a break from the sea of words I'm drowning in.

The poem is Ode to Typography, by Pablo Neruda, you can find the full one here. I am not quite sure though why it is "the U of your gaze" - any ideas?
(The keyboard is from the car boot sale - I prised off the keys and used a few for my Anatomy of Love board. The typeface I used for the letters is Tahoma, in case you were wondering...)

PS The new weekword was chosen by Asiye and is wanderlust (Lovely!!) Leave a comment on her blog here if you want to play along.

7 comments:

kendalee said...

That Neruda guy did have a way with words, didn't he? Perhaps the U refers to the way one's eyes sometimes sweep in a kind of u shape when one glances? Or is that too literal? I don't know. Again, this is so clever Anairam, your reinvention. It made me smile!

Linda Sue said...

Clever- And i am curious about U shaped glances- I get dash shaped glances- or horizontal commas...if I got a U glance I would probably become way too giddy, or bold.
I have drawn a "wanderlust" thing today- it was fun but not exactly right for the word, I am thinking.
Words words words- I'll bet you have a few to turn into money!

Anonymous said...

It's amazing what you have done with what would be just junk to other people! I'll have no problems this week with wanderlust - I love to travel - at the end of the month we are off to Australia and Singapore for five weeks!!!! (I'm taking my laptop so that I can e-mail my son, so hope to keep up with the blog too)

nathalie et cetera said...

Oh! This is so beautiful! I love how your mind works. About the "U", I have no clue, but it's poetry so...

Deniz said...

really clever! love it...
U of your gaze? not a clue, but maybe i never got a u -gaze before :)
thanks for reminding me- havent started on the week word yet!off to do something

aimee said...

how on earth did i miss this gem? an ode to typography AND neruda? gee whiz, where was i?

neftali said...

Such a great poem. Check out http://www.redpoppy.net/pablo_neruda.php
about a documentary on Neruda and the bestselling edition of translations, "The Essential Neruda"

"The call for a more accessible collection of Neruda's important poems is answered with City Lights' The Essential Neruda, a 200-page edition that offers 50 of Neruda's key poems. The editors and translators know how to extract gold from a lifetime of prolific writing. If you want a handy Neruda companion and don't know where to begin, this is it."
– The Bloomsbury Review

"What better way to celebrate the hundred years of Neruda's glorious residence on our earth than this selection of crucial works - in both languages! - by one of the greatest poets of all time. A splendid way to begin a love affair with our Pablo or, having already succumbed to his infinite charms, revisit him passionately again and again and yet again."
– Ariel Dorfman, Pulitzer-prize winner author of "Death and the Maiden"

" ...The Essential Neruda will prove to be, for most readers, the best introduction to Neruda available in English. In fact, I can think of few other books that have given me so much delight so easily. At only 234 pages (bilingual), it somehow manages to convey the fullness of Neruda's poetic arc: Reading it is like reading the autobiography of a poetic sensibility (granted, the abridged version)."
– The Austin Chronicle

Paz,
Mark