Happy Monday friends, today we continue to visit Chile once again, so make yourself a nice cup of tea or something stronger and let's let this wonderful poet put his spells on us!
Today we are reading:
SONNET XVII: LOVE BY PABLO NERUDA
Let's get to know Pablo Neruda:
Pablo Neruda (born Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto, July 12, 1904 – September 23, 1973) was a poet and a diplomat. Neruda became known as a poet when he was 10 years old. He wrote in a variety of styles, including surrealist poems, historical epics, overtly political manifestos, a prose autobiography, and passionate love poems. During his lifetime, Neruda occupied many diplomatic positions and served a term as a Senator for the Chilean Communist Party. He later went into exile with his wife as the president threatened to arrest him. In his lifetime he received Nobel Prizes for both Peace and Literature.
Sonnet XVII: Love
I don't love you as if you were the salt-rose, topaz
or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:
I love you as certain dark things are loved,
secretly, between the shadow and the soul.
I love you as the plant that doesn't bloom and carries
hidden within itself the light of those flowers,
and thanks to your love, darkly in my body
lives the dense fragrance that rises from the earth.
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,
I love you simply, without problems or pride:
I love you in this way because I don't know any other way of loving
but this, in which there is no I or you,
so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand,
so intimate that when I fall asleep it is your eyes that close.
or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:
I love you as certain dark things are loved,
secretly, between the shadow and the soul.
I love you as the plant that doesn't bloom and carries
hidden within itself the light of those flowers,
and thanks to your love, darkly in my body
lives the dense fragrance that rises from the earth.
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,
I love you simply, without problems or pride:
I love you in this way because I don't know any other way of loving
but this, in which there is no I or you,
so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand,
so intimate that when I fall asleep it is your eyes that close.
How wonderful is this poem? I believe it speaks of how sometimes we do not understand why we fall in love, or what we do love about the person. But still we do and we will full and free and beautiful and hopeful. Love is very personal and no one should tell you how to love another person! So go on loving your chosen ones and do it the best way you can - with your entire heart!
What did you think of SONNET XVII: LOVE?
