Pablo Neruda

o te amo como si fueras rosa de sal, topacio o flecha de claveles que propagan el fuego:
te amo como se aman ciertas cosas oscuras,
secretamente, entre la sombra y el alma.
Te amo como la planta que no florece y lleva

The memory of you emerges from the night around me.
The river mingles its stubborn lament with the sea.
Deserted like the wharves at dawn.
It is the hour of departure, oh deserted one!

If suddenly you do not exist,
if suddenly you no longer live,
I shall live on.
I do not dare

Now Let's look for birds!
The tall iron branches in the forest,
The dense fertility on the ground.
The world is wet.

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I have named you queen.
There are taller than you, taller.
There are purer than you, purer.
There are lovelier than you, lovelier.

And it was at that age… Poetry arrivedin search of me.
I don't know,
I don't know whereit came from, from winter or a river.
I don't know how or when

Littlerose,
roselet,
at times,
tiny and naked

Of the many men whom I am, whom we are,
I cannot settle on a single one.
They are lost to me under the cover of
They have departed for another city.

Love, a questionhas destroyed you.
I have come back to youfrom thorny uncertainty.
I want you straight asthe sword or the road.
But you insiston keeping a nookof shadow that I do not want.

Take bread away from me, if you wish,
take air away, butdo not take from me your laughter.
Do not take away the rose,
the lance flower that you pluck

Love, we're going home now,
Where the vines clamber over the trellis:
Even before you, the summer will arrive,
On its honeysuckle feet, in your bedroom.

I want you to know
one thing.
You know how this is:

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
Write, for example, 'The night is starry and the stars are blue and shiver in the distance.'The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.
Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
I loved her,…

Lovely one,
Just as on the cool
Of the spring, the
Opens a wide flash of foam,

Three triangles of birds crossed Over the enormous ocean which extended In winter like a green beast. Everything just lay there, the silence, The unfolding gray, the heavy light Of space, some land now and then. Over everything there was passing…

La calle se llenó de tomates,
mediodia,
verano,
la luz se parte en dosmitades de tomate

Here I love you.
In the dark pines the wind disentangles itself.
The moon glows like phosphorous on the vagrant waters.
Days, all one kind, go chasing each other.

Lost in the forest,
I broke off a dark twigand lifted its whisper to my thirsty lips:
maybe it was the voice of the rain crying,a cracked bell, or a torn heart.
Something from far off it seemeddeep and secret to me, hidden by the…

It’s good to feel you are close to me in the night, love,
invisible in your sleep, intently nocturnal,
while I untangle my worriesas if they were twisted nets.
Withdrawn, your heart sails through dream

Perhaps not to be is to be without your being,
without your going, that cuts noon lightlike a blue flower, without your passinglater through fog and stones,
without the torch you lift in your handthat others may not see as…

When your hands leaptowards mine, love,
what do they bring me in flight?
Why did they stopat my lips, so suddenly,
why do I know them

Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche.
Escribir, por ejemplo: 'La noche está estrellada,y tiritan, azules, los astros, a lo lejos.'El viento de la noche gira en el cielo y canta.
Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta…

I remember you as you were in the last autumn.
You were the grey beret and the still heart.
In your eyes the flames of the twilight fought on.
And the leaves fell in the water of your soul.