You make us cry without hurting us...

I was in i due forni, which makes the best pizza in berlin yesterday. the discussion lead -don't ask me how, I guess I was too hungry- the 3 vegetables whose absence would make the world unbearable. I knew my answer beforehand, onion, garlic, and artichoke. What I was no sure about their order. After a quite some contemplation I have came up with the ordering in the last sentence.

I want to praise this delicious vegetable which can render almost every type of food edible, with Pablo Neruda's poem "Ode to Onion"...

Ode to Onion

Onion,
luminous flask,
your beauty formed
petal by petal,
crystal scales expanded you
and in the secrecy of the dark earth
your belly grew round with dew.
Under the earth
the miracle
happened
and when your clumsy
green stem appeared,
and your leaves were born
like swords
in the garden,
the earth heaped up her power
showing your naked transparency,
and as the remote sea
in lifting the breasts of Aphrodite
duplicating the magnolia,
so did the earth
make you,
onion
clear as a planet
and destined
to shine,
constant constellation,
round rose of water,
upon
the table
of the poor.

You make us cry without hurting us.
I have praised everything that exists,
but to me, onion, you are
more beautiful than a bird
of dazzling feathers,
heavenly globe, platinum goblet,
unmoving dance
of the snowy anemone

and the fragrance of the earth lives
in your crystalline nature.

and for the Turkish readers of my blog, here is my humble translation.

sogan,
parlayan kap,
guzelligin yaprak yaprak,
kendini buldu,
kristal pullar seni buyuttu,
ve karanlik dunyanin gizeminde,
karnin cig taneleriyle yusyuvarlak oldu.
mucize
o sakar
yesil govden gorununce,
ve yapraklarin
bahcede
kiliclar gibi dogunca,
yer altinda oldu.
toprak tum gucunu
senin ciplak saydamligini gostermek icin
topladi.
nasil o uzak deniz
afroditin goguslerini kaldirdiysa,
toprak da
manolya gibi,
seni oyle yaratti.
sogan,
bir gezegen kadar saydam
ve parlamaya
mahkum
takimyildizi.
fakirlerin
masasinda
su icinde bir gul.

bizi acitmadan aglatirsin.
ben ki varolan heryesi guzellemisim,
fakat benim icin sogan, sen,
parlak tuylu
bir kustan,
cennet kuresinden, platin kadehten,
ve dag lalesinin durgun dansindan,
daha guzelsin.

ve topragin kokusu,
senin kristalsi doganda yasiyor...