DUOLINGO and learning SPANISH in the Bucket.

A NEW DOOR IN MY BRAIN HAS OPENED 

For the past  six weeks or so I have been studying Spanish online  on a site called DUOLINGO.
  It is absolutely free and  you can learn many different languages. Duolingo is like a game or so I imagine. It is interactive. And it has many exercises that force the student to add vocabulary and verb tenses in the  course of understanding and hearing and repeating sentences--just as we learned our first language as a child.

 It is not about rules or verb conjugations or grammar.  It is about learning in a context and it feels immersive.  I go there every day and can not stand to miss a day,  And this has brought me a great reward.

 I discovered many years ago the poetry of  Pablo Neruda. Reading his gorgeous lines  made me  want to learn to  read and understand  Spanish.  I  bought many bilingual editions of his poetry--his poetry of  revolution and his poetry of love.  And I would try to   memorize lines in Spanish but I did not even  know how to read or pronounce them.

  Last  night just as an experiment  I  looked up on line some of Nerudas's love poems and their English translation.

And a miracle has happened  here in the deepest darkest corner of the  BUCKET. 
I could read the Spanish out  loud and I feel confident that my pronunciation is pretty close. Because on Duo lingo you hear the sentences spoken by  Spanish speakers. And you the learner  repeat them back.
 Most encouraging I could  see  the words and  lines and understand them.

I looked for one of my favorite poems and here it is:

If You Forget Me - Pablo Neruda

I want you to know one thing. You know how this is: if I look at the crystal moon, at the red branch of the slow autumn at my window, if I touch near the fire the impalpable ash or the wrinkled body of the log, everything carries me to you, as if everything that exists: aromas, light, metals, were little boats that sail toward those isles of yours that wait for me. Well, now, if little by little you stop loving me I shall stop loving you little by little. If suddenly you forget me do not look for me, for I shall already have forgotten you. If you think it long and mad, the wind of banners that passes through my life, and you decide to leave me at the shore of the heart where I have roots, remember that on that day, at that hour, I shall lift my arms and my roots will set off to seek another land. But if each day, each hour, you feel that you are destined for me with implacable sweetness, if each day a flower climbs up to your lips to seek me, ah my love, ah my own, in me all that fire is repeated, in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten, my love feeds on your love, beloved, and as long as you live it will be in your arms without leaving mine. Si Tu Me Olvidas  Quiero que sepas una cosa. Tú sabes cómo es esto: si miro la luna de cristal, la rama roja del lento otoño en mi ventana, si toco junto al fuego la impalpable ceniza o el arrugado cuerpo de la leña, todo me lleva a ti, como si todo lo que existe: aromas, luz, metales, fueran pequeños barcos que navegan hacia las islas tuyas que me aguardan. Ahora bien, si poco a poco dejas de quererme dejaré de quererte poco a poco. Si de pronto me olvidas no me busques, que ya te habré olvidado. Si consideras largo y loco el viento de banderas que pasa por mi vida y te decides a dejarme a la orilla del corazón en que tengo raíces, piensa que en esa día, a esa hora levantaré los brazos y saldrán mis raíces a buscar otra tierra. Pero si cada día, cada hora, sientes que a mí estás destinada con dulzura implacable, si cada día sube una flor a tus labios a buscarme, ay amor mío, ay mía, en mí todo ese fuego se repite, en mí nada se apaga ni se olvida, mi amor se nutre de tu amor, amada, y mientras vivas estará en tus brazos sin salir de los míos.