“Oh, Frieda Rebecca, of course! Ein Wunderkind, Mummy. Ein Wunderkind!” – Sylvia Plath to her Mother, just after her daughter was born on 1^st April 1960.  

Sylvia Plath ficou radiante com o nascimento de sua filha, Frieda Rebecca Hughes. “Nunca me senti tão feliz na minha vida”, escreveu ela à mãe. Alguns meses, mais tarde, em 19 de Fevereiro de 1961, escreveu esta poesia, que reflecte ao mesmo tempo as alegrias da maternidade e a distância que a criança acaba por estabelecer em relação aos pais enquanto indivíduo dotado do seu próprio destino. S. Plath escolheu este poema para abrir o seu volume de poesia “Ariel”. Sobre Frieda Hughes, ver este site.

The birth: Her daughter is really the fruit of love between her parents. Gold watch: a beautiful machine very appreciated. Fat: fat babies are beautiful. The nurse (midwife) slapped the baby to make her cry, to begin to breathe.

 The persons assisting applaud.  The naked baby resembles a small statue in a museum. The nakedness of the baby impresses people, make them feel weak.

 The mother expects the best for her child. But she is really impotent to make her destiny. She is like a cloud that dissolves in rain, creating in the earth a mirror, that then reflects the effacement of the cloud  by the wind.

 The breathing of the baby is beautiful, it flickers. “among the flat pink roses”: The patterns of the paper in the wall (very usual in SP to refer the paper in the wall).

Mother awakes: in the silence of the night she hears the blood singing in her ears.  The baby cries. Mother comes up from the bed, still fat, heavy as a cow, in her night-gown, very long (Victorian), with patterns of flowers. The words capture the sharp, neat shape of a cat’s mouth.

 Clarity comes through the window and the stars disappear. The baby tries so “say” something; what comes out is like music. There are there open (clear) vowels that rise in the air like balloons.