The poem as a mirror of being: a semiotic, psychoanalytic, and existentialist analysis of “Las cosas que digo” (The Things I Say) by Gabriel Ganiarov

Cover of the Album "Las Cosas Que Digo" by Gabriel Ganiarov

Summary

This essay offers an interdisciplinary reading of the poem "Las cosas que digo" , exploring its syntagmatic and paradigmatic structures, as well as its psychoanalytic and existential dimensions. Through semiotic tools, the text analyzes semantic tensions and emotional progression. From a psychoanalytic perspective, it interprets how the poem gives voice to unconscious conflicts, repressed desires, and defense mechanisms. Finally, from an existentialist viewpoint drawing on Sartre, Camus, Beauvoir, and Irigaray, it examines how the poetic "I" experiences freedom, embodiment, and place in the world. The poem thus reveals itself as a profound linguistic experience where the symbolic, the psychic, and the ontological converge.

Keywords : poem, semiotics, psychoanalysis, existentialism, language, subjectivity

Introduction

The word does not only speak; the word inhabits. In the poem "Las cosas que digo" , there emerges a deep experience of language as a way of being in the world — of feeling it, wearing it down, and being worn by it. This text, brief yet densely meaningful, reveals itself as a space where multiple systems of meaning converge: from the paradigmatic relations that organize it as a symbolic system, to the unconscious resonances that run through it, to the existential dimensions that sustain it.

Through a semiotic, psychoanalytic, and phenomenological-existential analysis, this essay seeks to explore how "Las cosas que digo" constructs meaning from a complex internal architecture, where each image, silence, and word acts as a sign referring to other signs, other bodies, and other ways of living. The poem becomes, then, a mirror of contemporary consciousness — fragmented, self-aware, yet open to the mystery of its own existence.

The Poem:

"Las cosas que digo"

Las cosas que digo

viven arriba y abajo

llueven y vuelan

y retornan

lentas… a pedazos

todo mi ser

frío y turbio como noche

anhela esperar

olvida poco

con desgaste de metales

no me parezco a la lluvia

aunque a veces necesario es

soltar los ojos

esperar un resplandor

aspirar a vivir

solo quiero

tenderme inmóvil en las aguas

sobrevivir al eco

prolongar el nudo que me ata

y saber…

que el futuro no es un vicio

Gabriel Ganiarov

2016

“The things I say"

The things I say

live above and below

rain and fly

and return

slowly... in pieces

my whole being

cold and murky like night

longs to wait

forgets little

with the wear and tear of metals

I am not like the rain

although sometimes it is necessary

to let go of the eyes

to wait for a glimmer

aspire to live

I just want

to lie motionless in the waters

survive the echo

prolong the knot that binds me

and know...

that the future is not a vice

Gabriel Ganiarov

2016

I. Syntagmatic Analysis: Emotional and Narrative Progression

From a syntagmatic perspective, the poem unfolds as an emotional journey traversing different stations of the soul: from initial expression, through introspection and renunciation, to arrive at a kind of resigned but lucid acceptance.

The first stanza — "Las cosas que digo / viven arriba y abajo / llueven y vuelan / y retornan / lentas… a pedazos" — introduces a pulsional dynamic of language. Words are not mere communication tools, but entities with their own movement, inhabiting the space between high and low, visible and invisible, presence and absence. This syntactic structure reflects an uncontrolled relationship between the subject and speech: language has life, and that life escapes the speaker's control (Saussure, 1916).

In the second section — "todo mi ser / frío y turbio como noche / anhela esperar / olvida poco / con desgaste de metales" — the poem turns inward. A wounded subjectivity emerges, aware of its vulnerability. The accumulation of negative adjectives ("cold," "murky") and bodily metonymy ("metal fatigue") suggests an experience of the body as a site of decay and resistance (Merleau-Ponty, 1945).

Then, in the third segment — "no me parezco a la lluvia / aunque a veces necesario es / soltar los ojos / esperar un resplandor / aspirar a vivir" — tension arises between identity and the need to flow. The subject acknowledges not belonging to any natural order, yet perceives the urgency of letting go, of allowing oneself to fall, of opening to the unpredictable. The infinitives (“soltar,” “esperar,” “aspirar”) suggest possible desires, not fulfilled, keeping the "I" in a state of suspension.

Finally, in the closing lines — "solo quiero / tenderme inmóvil en las aguas / sobrevivir al eco / prolongar el nudo que me ata / y saber… / que el futuro no es un vicio" — the poem reaches its philosophical climax. There is no final resolution, only an ethical affirmation: the desire for absolute rest coexists with the will to maintain certain bonds, certain connections. Most importantly, the future ceases to be seen as temptation or addiction and becomes an open possibility (Camus, 1942).

II. Paradigmatic Analysis: Semantic Tensions and Systems of Opposition

From a paradigmatic point of view, the poem is structured around a series of semantic axes that shape its meaning and confer symbolic depth:

Movement / Stillness : Between “fly,” “return,” “letting go of the eyes” and “lying still,” a line of tension is drawn between action and silence, impulse and surrender.

Liquid / Solid : “Rain,” “waters,” and “metal fatigue” contrast fluidity with rigidity, ephemerality with persistence.

Clarity / Darkness : “Murky like night” and “glow” represent a dialectic between shadow and illumination, knowledge and mystery.

Memory / Forgetting : “Remembers little” opposes a possible “erase” or “leave behind,” showing a consciousness carrying the past without being able to shed it.

Connection / Disconnection from Nature : “Not like rain” establishes a distance between the subject and natural cycles, suggesting modern alienation from the environment.

Life / Death / Survival : “Aspire to live” and “survive the echo” mark a subtle but important distinction: it’s no longer about full life, but about standing firm against wear.

Fate / Freedom : “The future is not a vice” rejects a fatalistic vision of what lies ahead, affirming that the future can be chosen, even if not guaranteed.

These axes are not static, but dynamic. The poem does not definitively lean toward one pole or another, but maintains constant tension between them — which grants it interpretative richness (Barthes, 1953).

III. Psychoanalytic Reading: The Return of the Repressed and the Economy of Desire

From a psychoanalytic reading inspired by Freud and Lacan, the poem reveals itself as a manifestation of the internal conflict between the conscious ego and the forces of the unconscious. Words do not merely express ideas; they carry affects, traumas, and veiled desires.

The line "Las cosas que digo / viven arriba y abajo / llueven y vuelan / y retornan / lentas… a pedazos" can be read as a metaphor for the return of the repressed — those mental contents we try to forget but always return transformed. This evokes Freud’s notion of Wiederholungszwang (compulsion to repeat), according to which the subject unconsciously repeats painful patterns in an attempt to master them (Freud, 1920).

The phrase "con desgaste de metales" points to the somatization of psychological distress. The body is not just a physical support, but the site where personal and cultural history is inscribed. In Lacanian terms, this could relate to the register of jouissance : the subject simultaneously experiences pleasure and pain, caught in an ambivalent relationship with the object of desire (Lacan, 1964).

The verse "solo quiero / tenderme inmóvil en las aguas" suggests a fantasy of returning to the origin — perhaps the maternal womb or a pre-linguistic state. But it also evokes Freud’s death drive (Thanatos ): the impulse toward absolute rest, toward definitive silence.

And finally, "que el futuro no es un vicio" marks a moment of symbolic mourning, where the subject renounces the future as escape and assumes it as an open horizon. It is a form of accepting incomplete desire — a productive renunciation that allows continued existence.

IV. Existentialist Reading: Freedom, Body, and Temporality

From the perspective of existentialism, particularly in its Sartrean, Camusian, and Beauvoirian versions, the poem portrays a consciousness experiencing freedom with anguish, its body with weariness, and time with clarity.

Sartre once said, "man is condemned to be free." In the poem, this condemnation manifests in the responsibility of speech: speaking is not only communicating, but constituting oneself as a subject. The "I" cannot escape its words, nor their returns (Sartre, 1943).

Beauvoir, in The Second Sex , insisted that "we are what we make of what has been made of us." The body in the poem is historical, marked by time (“desgaste de metales” ), yet capable of resistance and waiting (Beauvoir, 1949).

Camus, in The Myth of Sisyphus , proposed an ethics of silent rebellion: "We must imagine Sisyphus happy." The poem seems to respond to this invitation: there is no final redemption, but there is a gesture of continuity, of wanting to remain in the world despite the wear and tear (Camus, 1942).

Merleau-Ponty taught us that "the body is not just an object, but the means by which I access the world." In the poem, the body is not abstract, but lived: cold, murky, tired, sensitive (Merleau-Ponty, 1945).

Finally, Irigaray, in her feminist critique of traditional philosophy, noted that "I am not another than myself." The line "no me parezco a la lluvia" can be read as an assertion of singularity, difference, and resistance to being absorbed by grand narratives (Irigaray, 1974).

V. Conclusion: The Poem as an Experience of Being

"Las cosas que digo" constitutes an experience of being. Through a careful syntagmatic structure, a rich paradigmatic system of oppositions, a complex psychic economy, and mature existential reflection, the text builds an atmosphere where the symbolic, the unconscious, and the ontological converge.

This poem invites us to accompany a self that speaks from the fracture, from weariness, from waiting. A self that does not seek resolution, but habitation; that does not aim to possess, but to resist; that does not flee the world, but looks at it with lucidity — and in that gaze, finds a way to continue.

"Las cosas que digo" is a meditation on the human condition: vulnerable, aware, imperfect, yet open to the mystery of language and the miracle of existence.

References

Barthes, R. (1953). Mythologies . Éditions du Seuil.

Beauvoir, S. de. (1949). Le Deuxième Sexe . Gallimard.

Camus, A. (1942). Le Mythe de Sisyphe . Gallimard.

Freud, S. (1920). Beyond the Pleasure Principle . Internationaler Psychoanalytischer Verlag.

Irigaray, L. (1974). Eléments de philosophie féminine I: Le Poids d’un regard . Minuit.

Lacan, J. (1964). Le Séminaire, livre XI: Les quatre concepts fondamentaux de la psychanalyse . Seuil.

Merleau-Ponty, M. (1945). Phénoménologie de la perception . Gallimard.

Saussure, F. de. (1916). Cours de linguistique générale . Payot.

Sartre, J.-P. (1943). L’Être et le Néant . Gallimard.