A Walk on the Lighter Side...The Essential Pablo Neruda.

 These are two of my favorite Pablo Neruda poems. Not a huge romantic, but I do love this man's work. I will put them up in both Spanish and English for those who don't read Spanish.

No te amo como si fueras rosa de sal, topacio o flecha de claveles que propagan el fuego: te amo como se aman ciertas cosas oscuratas, secretamente, entre la sombra y el alma.

Te amo cono la planta que no florece y lleva dentro de si, escondida, la luz de aquellas flores, y gracias a tu amor vive oscuro en mi cuerpo el apretado aroma que ascendio de la tierra.

Te amo sin saber como, ni cuando, mi de donde, te amo directamente sin problemas ni orgullo: asi te amo porque no se amar de otra manera, sino asi de este modo en que no soy ni eres, tan cerca que tu mano sobre mi pecho es mia, tan cerca que se cierran tus ojos con mi sueno.

I don't love you as if you were a rose of salt, topaz, or arrow of carnations that propagate fire: I love you as one loves certain obscure things, secretly, between the shadow and the soul.
I love you as the plant that doesn't bloom but carries the light of those flowers, hidden, within itself, and thanks to your love the tight aroma that arose from the earth lives dimly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where, I love you directly without problems or pride: I love you like this becasue I don't know any other way to love, except in this form in which I am not nor are you, so close that your hand upon my chest is mine, so close that your eyes close with my dreams.

Puedo escribir los versos mas tristes esta noche.
Escribir por ejemplo: "La noche esta estrellada, y tiritan, azules, los astros, a lo lejos".
El viento de la noche gira en el cielo y canta.
Puedo escribir los cersos mas tristes esta noche. Yo la quise, y a veces ella tambien me quiso.
En las noches como esta la tuve entre mis brazos. La bese tantas veces bajo el cielo infinito.
Ella me quisa, a veces ya tambien la queria. Como no haber amado sus grandes ojos fijos.
Puedo escribir los versos mas tristes esta noche. Pensar que no la tengo. Sentir que la he perdido.
Oir la noche inmensa, mas inmensa sin ella. Y el verso cae al alma cono al paso el rocio.
Que importa que mi amor no pudiera quardarla. La noche esta estrellada y ella no esta conmigo.
Eso es todo. A lo lejos alguien canta. A lo lejos. Mi alma no se contenta con heberla perdido.
Como para acercarla mi mirada la busca, Mi corazon la busca, y ella no esta monmigo.
La misma noche que hace blanquear los mismos arboles. Nosotros, los de entonces, ya no somos los mismos.
Ya no la quiero, es cierto, pero cuanto la quise. Mi voz buscaba el viento para tocar su oido.
De otro. Sera de otro. Como antes de mis besos. Su voz, su cuerpo claro. Sus ojos infinitos.
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 esta la tuve entre mis brazos, mi alma no se contenta con haberla perdido.
Aunque este sea el ultimo dolor que ella me causa, y estos sean los ultimos verso que yo le escribo.

I can write the saddest verses tonight.
Write, for example, "The night is full of stars, twinkling blue, in the distance."
The night wind spins in the sky and sings.
I can write the saddest verses tonight. I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.
On nights like this I held her in my arms. I kissed her so many times beneath the infinite sky.
She loved me, at times I loved her too. How not to have loved her great still eyes.
I can write the saddest verses tonight. To think that I don't have her. To feel that I have lost her.
To hear the immense night, more immense without her. And the verse falls onto my soul like dew onto grass.
What difference that my love could not keep her. The night is full of stars, and she is not with me.
That's all. In the distance, someone sings. In the distance. My soul is not at peace with having lost her.
As if to bring her closer, my gaze searches for her, My heart searches for her, and she is not with me.
The same night that whitens the same trees. We, of then, now are no longer the same.
I no longer love her, it's true, but how much I loved her. My voice searched for the wind that would touch her ear.
Another's. She will be another's. As before my kisses. Her voice, her bright body. Her infinite eyes.
I no longer love her, it's true, but maybe I lvoe her. Love is so short, and forgetting is so long.
Because on nights like this I held her in my arms, my soul is not at peace with having lost her.
Though this may be the final sorrow she causes me, and these the last verses I write for her.