Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair Quotes

“I want
To do with you what spring does with the cherry trees.”
― Pablo Neruda, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“It was at that age
that poetry came in search of me.”
― Pablo Neruda, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“I no longer love her, that's certain, but maybe I love her. Love is so short, forgetting is so long.”
― Pablo Neruda, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“Then love knew it was called love.
And when I lifted my eyes to your name,
suddenly your heart showed me my way”
― Pablo Neruda, Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada; Cien sonetos de amor

“Es tan corto el amor, y es tan largo el olvido.”
― Pablo Neruda, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“Who writes your name in letters of smoke among the stars of the south?
Oh let me remember you as you were before you existed.”
― Pablo Neruda, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“And I watch my words from a long way off.
They are more yours than mine.
They climb on my old suffering like ivy.”
― Pablo Neruda, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“Tonight I can write the saddest lines
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.”
― Pablo Neruda, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“Entre los labios y la voz, algo se va muriendo.
Algo con alas de pájaro, algo de angustia y de olvido”
― Pablo Neruda, Veinte Poemas de Amor y Una Canción Desesperada

“Ya no la quiero, es cierto, pero tal vez la quiero.
Es tan corto el amor, y es tan largo el olvido.”
― Pablo Neruda, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“sometimes i get up at dawn, and even my soul is wet.”
― Pablo Neruda, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“How you must have suffered getting accustomed to me,
my savage, solitary soul, my name that sends them all running.
So many times we have seen the morning star burn, kissing our eyes,
and over our heads the grey light unwinds in turning fans.”
― Pablo Neruda, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“There were thirst and hunger, and you were the fruit.
There were grief and the ruins, and you were the miracle.”
― Pablo Neruda, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“Here I love you and the horizon hides you in vain.
I love you still among these cold things.
Sometimes my kisses go on those heavy vessels
that cross the sea towards no arrival.
I see myself forgotten like those old anchors.
The piers sadden when the afternoon moors there.
My life grows tired, hungry to no purpose.
I love what I do not have. You are so far.
My loathing wrestles with the slow twilights.
But night comes and starts to sing to me.”
― Pablo Neruda, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“Me gustas cuando callas porque estas como austente y me oyes desde lejos, y mi voz no te toca. Parece que los ojos se te hubieran volado y parece que un beso te cerrara la boca. Como todas las cosas estan llenas de mi alma emerges de las cosas, llena del alma mia. Mariposa de sueno, te pareces a mi alma, y te pareces a la palabra melancolia.”
― Pablo Neruda, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“The birds of night peck at the first stars
that flash like my soul when I love you.”
― Pablo Neruda, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“Like them you are tall and taciturn, and you are sad, all at once, like a voyage.”
― Pablo Neruda, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“The morning is full of storm
in the heart of summer.

The clouds travel like white handkerchiefs of goodbye,
the wind, travelling, waving them in its hands.

The numberless heart of the wind
beating above our loving silence.

Orchestral and divine, resounding among the trees
like a language full of wars and songs.”
― Pablo Neruda, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“Tonight I Can Write”
― Pablo Neruda, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“Soy el desesperado, la palabra sin ecos, el que lo perdiò todo, y el que todo lo tuvo.”
― Pablo Neruda, Veinte Poemas de Amor y una Canción Desesperada

“And I watch my words from a long way off.
They are more yours than mine.
They climb on my old suffering like ivy.

It climbs the same way on damp walls.
You are to blame for this cruel sport.
They are fleeing from my dark lair.
You fill everything, you fill everything.

Before you they peopled the solitude that you occupy,
and they are more used to my sadness than you are.

Now I want them to say what I want to say to you
to make you hear as I want you to hear me.”
― Pablo Neruda, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“Oh to follow the road that leads away from everything,
without anguish, death, winter waiting along it
with their eyes open through the dew.”
― Pablo Neruda, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“Every day you play with the light of the universe.”
― Pablo Neruda, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“White bee, even when you are gone you buzz in my soul
You live again in time, slender and silent.”
― Pablo Neruda, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“You keep only darkness, my distant female,
from your regard sometimes the coast of dread emerges.”
― Pablo Neruda, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“In you is the illusion of each day.
You arrive like the dew to the cupped flowers.
You undermine the horizon with your absence.
Eternally in flight like the wave.”
― Pablo Neruda, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“Me gustas cuando callas porque estás como ausente,
y me oyes desde lejos, y mi voz no te toca.
Parece que los ojos se te hubieran volado
y parece que un beso te cerrara la boca.
.
Como todas las cosas están llenas de mi alma
emerges de las cosas, llena del alma mía.
Mariposa de sueño, te pareces a mi alma,
y te pareces a la palabra melancolía.
.
Me gustas cuando callas y estás como distante.
Y estás como quejándote, mariposa en arrullo.
Y me oyes desde lejos, y mi voz no te alcanza:
Déjame que me calle con el silencio tuyo.
.
Déjame que te hable también con tu silencio
claro como una lámpara, simple como un anillo.
Eres como la noche, callada y constelada.
Tu silencio es de estrella, tan lejano y sencillo.
.
Me gustas cuando callas porque estás como ausente.
Distante y dolorosa como si hubieras muerto.
Una palabra entonces, una sonrisa bastan.
Y estoy alegre, alegre de que no sea cierto.”
― Pablo Neruda, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“Body of my woman, I will persist in your grace.”
― Pablo Neruda, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“Ya no la quiero, es cierto, pero tal vez la quiero.
Es tan corto el amor y es tan largo el olvido.
Porque en noches como ésta la tuve entre mis brazos,
mi alma no se contenta con haberla perdido.
Aunque éste sea el último dolor que ella me causa,
y éstos sean los últimos versos que yo le escribo.”
― Pablo Neruda, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“...And I watch my words
from a long way off..
They are more YOURS than mine..
They climb on my old suffering
like ivy...”
― Pablo Neruda, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair