All those men were there inside, <br />when she came in totally naked. <br />They had been drinking: they began to spit. <br />Newly come from the river, she knew nothing. <br />She was a mermaid who had lost her way. <br />The insults flowed down her gleaming flesh. <br />Obscenities drowned her golden breasts. <br />Not knowing tears, she did not weep tears. <br />Not knowing clothes, she did not have clothes. <br />They blackened her with burnt corks and cigarette stubs, <br />and rolled around laughing on the tavern floor. <br />She did not speak because she had no speech. <br />Her eyes were the colour of distant love, <br />her twin arms were made of white topaz. <br />Her lips moved, silent, in a coral light, <br />and suddenly she went out by that door. <br />Entering the river she was cleaned, <br />shining like a white stone in the rain, <br />and without looking back she swam again <br />swam towards emptiness, swam towards death.<br /><br />Pablo Neruda<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/fable-of-the-mermaid-and-the-drunks/
