Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair – 100 Years Later
Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
In my sky at twilight you are like a cloud
and your form and colour are the way I love them.
You are mine, mine, woman with sweet lips
and in your life my infinite dreams live…
It would be hard not to fall for someone who wrote you love poems like Pablo Neruda does. That was my first thought after reading a few poems from Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, a collection of romantic musings by the Chilean writer, first published in 1924. That’s 100 years ago! Wow. There is something so alive about his words; they don’t feel like an echo from a century ago, perhaps because he was only 20 at the time, full of passionate vigor.
Almost all the love poems in this collection share the same theme: Pablo writing about the woman he loves, comparing her to various elements of nature. You’ll find recurring imagery and metaphors related to the seas and mountains, which resonated with me even more because I am currently based in a city nestled between the hills and the sea. As I read Neruda’s poems, the view from where I was sitting was of a lush, green, monsoon-kissed hill. Ah, there’s a special magic in reading love poems on a rainy day with a beautiful view.
I remember borrowing a small book of poems called Love by Pablo Neruda a few years ago, and a friend revealed to me how some of her exes would use Pablo’s poetry to woo her. “Tonight I can write the saddest lines. I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.” This one is perhaps the most popular with romantics caught in the agony of unrequited love or a broken heart. It’s the 20th poem in Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair.
My favorite is probably the last one, The Song of Despair, where Pablo recalls a short but “drunken, tense, avid” love with a woman. He speaks of remembering her one night and drowning in sorrow when reminded of how the lovers were forced to part, even though he also admits that his desire for the woman was scarily short-lived. I appreciated that candidness, the admission of his own heart’s restlessness and frivolity.
All sorts of lovers, young and old, will find words that will resonate with them through Neruda’s poetry, you would wish someone wrote to you like that, or that you could write like that for someone. But until you find the inspiration to write your own songs of hope or despair, there’s always Neruda’s poetry to turn to.
Rating: 4.5 on 5.
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