Twenty Love Poems And A Song Of Despair

by Pablo Neruda

I was alone like a tunnel. The birds fled from me, and night swamped me with its crushing invasion. To survive myself I forged you like a weapon, like an arrow in my bow , a stone in my sling. But the hour of vengeance falls, and I love you.

In you the rivers sing and my soul flees in them as you desire, and you send it where you will.

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

But my words become stained with your love. You occupy everything, you occupy everything.

Dry autumn leaves revolved in your soul.

How you must have suffered getting accustomed to me, my savage, solitary soul, my name that sends them all running.

I want to do with you what spring does with the cherry trees.

In your eyes of mourning the land of dreams begin.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines. I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.

She loved me, sometimes I loved her too. How could one not love her great still eyes. Tonight I can write the saddest lines. To think that I do not have her . To feel that I have lost her.

What does it matter that my love could not keep her. The night is starry and she is not with me. This is all.

My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her .

I no longer love her , that’s certain, but maybe I love her. Love is so short, forgetting is so long.

There were thirst and hunger , and you were the fruit. There were grief and the ruins, and you were the miracle.

Ah woman, I do not know how you could contain me in the earth of your soul, in the cross of your arms!