Brotherhood by Octavio Paz | Summary, Analysis, Line by Line Analysis

Brotherhood by Octavio Paz

 

Introduction

For Octavio Paz all art is poetry. A successful poet becomes the poem itself. As told in the dedication part of the poem “Homage to Claudius Ptolemy“, the poem, Brotherhood becomes the search for rhythmic correspondences in the universe where each and every part are related to each other in an everlasting bond. Human existence in the midst of the great universe is finite and very negligible but again surrounded by enormous meaning, like the vastness of the sky. So, human existence becomes a vital part of that great rhythmic process. The concept of time is not without or outside us, we are time and it is not the years that pass but we ourselves pass. So time is human himself. Again human means rhythm because always there is a desire in human beings to be something else. Poetry is also the same, poetry is desire. So everything on this earth becomes a movable reality.

 

Who was Claudius Ptolemy?

Claudius Ptolemy (AD 90 – AD160) was an astronomer in Egypt, under Roman rule. He created a mathematical treatise on the apparent motion of stars and planets in a geocentric model. His work became the basis of western astronomy for the next twelve centuries.

 

Summary of Brotherhood by Octavio Paz

For Octavio Paz, there is no difference in between a poet and his/her created poetry, as poet recreates himself/herself in the midst of the creation. ‘Brotherhood’ is such a kind of poem which demands symbolic level of understanding.

The poet is only a man; a human being and he will be on this earth only for a short period of time in respect of the great vastness of the space and time. So a human life is finite and Insignificant in respect of the great vastness of time and space. But the night is enormous; here night symbolically may stand for great universe and its infinite vastness. So the great universe that surrounds the poet is ‘enormous’ in meaning the vast night sky of Infinity. Again from another angle, if life is light, then death is darkness of the night. So life is finite but the after death existence of human soul is infinite. So after the earthly death another life of infinity reveals itself.

So like the movable, ever-changing universe human life merely changes its form from life to death but the death of souls never come. Looking up the poet finds the stars write writing in their own language in the midst of their movement. Beyond the normal perception of five senses (unknowing) the poet comprehends (understand) through his better knowledge that he himself is also becomes written, becomes a part of that rhythm. He becomes a poet, a creator of a poem, just like the Great Creator of this universe. The poem becomes that universal rhythm where everything is a vital part of existence including the poet himself. ‘I’ becomes the universal language, the same language with which the stars write. This is that ‘very moment’ of universal realization. So when the readers read the poem they actually ‘spell me out’, they write the poet’s name.

 

Brotherhood by Octavio Paz Analysis

The poem ‘Brotherhood‘ is the English translation of the original poem namely ‘Hermandad‘, translated by Elliot Weinberger. It was published in 1987 in the ‘Octavio Paz: Collected poems’ written by Paz.

Octavio Paz dedicated the poem ‘Brotherhood’ as the homage to Claudius Ptolemy, an astronomer in Egypt, under Roman rule. The theory of astronomy propagated by Ptolemy becomes the inspiration for Paz to establish poetry as part of that great universal rhythm where brotherhood can be found with infinity. So his poem becomes the search for rhythmic correspondence in the universe.

The poet is only a man; a human being and he will be on this earth only for a short period of time in respect of the great vastness of the space and time. So a human being can be considered as a mere short space of time on this universe. But the night is enormous; here night symbolically may stand for great universe. So the great universe that surrounds me is ‘enormous’ in meaning the vast night sky of infinity. Again from another angle, if life is light, then death is darkness of the night. So life is finite but the world of death, after death existence of human soul is infinite. So after the earthly death another life of infinity reveals itself.

So like the movable, ever-changing universe human life merely changes its forms; from life to death but the death of souls never come. Looking up the poet finds the stars write; rhythmically they move and shine; writing in their own language. Beyond the normal perception of five senses (unknowing) the poet comprehends (understand) through his better knowledge of the creation of universe that he himself is also becomes written; becomes a part of that rhythm. He becomes a poet, creator of a poem, assimilating himself with the poem, just like the Great Creator of this universe. The poem becomes that universal rhythm where everything is a vital part of existence including the poet himself. ‘I’ becomes the universal language, the same language with which the stars write.

According to Sanskrit origin, a poet is he who steals the hidden theory of God’s creation of this universe. Here the poet becomes the same. This is that ‘very moment’ of universal realization. So when the readers read the poem they actually ‘spell me out’, they write my name, because I am the poem.

The poet, Paz, as a human being realizes the insignificance of our existence on this earth in respect of infinite vastness of time and space. Our life of light is surrounded by infinite darkness of night. But for Paz, it is not darkness but full of star’s shine. In the same way, life and death become the changing part of greater meaning of life and in this way we can find brotherhood with the stars or other objects of this universe. So looking up with better perception, the poet finds that the moveable and ever-changing stars are writing on the sky with their own language. Then he can understand that he himself is not a separated part of that system as he is also written. So in finite human life also, brotherhood and everlastingness can be established with everything in this great cosmic system.

So when someone is reading the poem, through the rhythmic language, the poet becomes reinvented by the readers as the poet is the poem itself.

Octavio Paz is a modern poet of the latter half of the 20^th century. For him the poetry is the secret religion of the modem age. Like the constant revolution of the cosmic system, the revolution of words creates the existence of human beings in a renewed way through poetry. So like the other poems of Paz, ‘Brotherhood’ also is a poem of beautiful creative genius and originality of thinking with highly symbolic presentation.

The poem ‘Brotherhood’ becomes the search for rhythmic correspondences in the universe where each and every part are related to each other in an everlasting bond. Here comes the idea of brotherhood. Human existence in the midst of the great universe is finite and very negligible but again surrounded by enormous meaning, like the vastness of the sky. So, human existence becomes a vital part of that great rhythmic process. Brotherhood – the concept of a great bondage of soul becomes established with all the moveable objects of this great universal system.

A brotherhood is an idea of relationship between different entities that work organically. In the universe the presence of a human being like the poet may seem negligible because the apparent life for us is too short but brotherhood can be found with the stars, with all the objects, how far those may be from us. So not only stars write, we also are written with everlasting bondage. Brotherhood becomes established.

 

Brotherhood by Octavio Paz Line by Line Analysis

Line-1:

“I am a man: little do I last” 

Someone on this earth is only a human being and his/her life is finite, very limited in respect of the vastness of time and space. So apparently life is insignificant.

Line- 2:

“and the night is enormous” 

In respect of life, night is not contradictory. So that the conjunction used here is not ‘but’ but ‘and’. So beyond our finite life remains the vastness of meaning just like the enormous night sky, full of infinite stars. So the finite life of us becomes the part of vast infinite and thus meaningless.

Line – 3-4:

“But I look up the stars write”

The line starts with the conjunction ‘but because now the poet is going to realize the universal meaning of human life which cannot be understood by common power of reasoning. So normally what the others perceive the poet is going to perceive the opposite. Looking up he finds that with movement and rhythm the stars write in the great universe with their own language.

Lines – 5-6:

“Unknowing I understand :/ I too am written”.

Not with the common knowledge of this earth (unknowing), but with better level of perception (understand), with the greater meaning of universal truth, the poet finds that he himself is also a part of that great rhythm, he himself is written. So this is the supreme meaning of life and such realization places anyone in the same position of God, the great creator. Here the poet also becomes the same kind of creator.

Line – 7:

“and at this very moments”

Here very moment denotes the moment of that universal realization of that great truth.

Line – 8:

“Someone spells me out”

So when someone is reading the poem, through the rhythmic language, the poet becomes reinvented by the readers as the poet is the poem itself.