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PABLO NERUDA
TWENTY LOVE POEMS
and
The Song of Despair
1 Female body, white thighs, pale
uplands
2
Within its mortal flame the light enclothes you
3
Ah vastness of pines, murmur of waves cascading
4
In the heart of summer
5
So
that you may hear me
6
I remember you as in that final autumn
7
Leaning into afternoons I throw sad nets
8
Drunk on honey, white bee, you buzz in my soul
9
Drunk on turpentine and long kisses 10
We have lost even this nightfall
11
Almost beyond the sky, between two mountains 12
Your breast suffices my heart
13
I have been marking with crosses of fire 14
You play every day with the light of the universe
15
I
enjoy it when you are quiet, it’s as if you’re not here 16
In my sky at dusk you are like a cloud 17
Pondering, confusing shadows in deep
isolation 18
Here I love you 19
Agile tanned girl, the sun that forms fruit 20
Tonight I can write the saddest lines
The
Song of Despair
1.
Female
body, white thighs, pale uplands,
you
could pass for the world itself, feigning submission.
My
brutal farmhand’s body undermines you
and
makes a man-child leap up from earth’s womb.
...
Pablo Neruda (translated
by Alan Marshfield)
(For full translation
see the Kindle ebook The Translations of Alan Marshfield)
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note
2.
Within
its mortal flame the light enclothes you.
Engrossed:
pale mourner, placed just so
against
the ancient weather-vanes of twilight
that
whirl and whirl about you.
...
Pablo Neruda (translated
by Alan Marshfield)
(For full translation
see the Kindle ebook The Translations of Alan Marshfield) back
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of page
note
3.
Ah
vastness of pines, murmur of waves cascading,
slow
play of lights, solitary church bell,
day’s
end descending within your eyes, pretty doll,
conch
dug from earth in which earth does its singing.
...
Pablo Neruda (translated
by Alan Marshfield)
(For full translation
see the Kindle ebook The Translations of Alan Marshfield)
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of page
note
4.
In
the heart of summer
the
morning is full of storms.
Clouds
travel like white handkerchiefs of goodbye:
The
wind with travelling hands is waving them.
...
Pablo Neruda (translated
by Alan Marshfield)
(For full translation
see the Kindle ebook The Translations of Alan Marshfield)
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of page
note
5.
So
that you may hear me
my
words
sometimes
become lighter
like
the traces of gulls in wet sand.
...
Pablo Neruda (translated
by Alan Marshfield)
(For full translation
see the Kindle ebook The Translations of Alan Marshfield)
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of page
note
6.
I
remember you as in that final autumn.
You
were grey beret and calm heart.
In
your eyes rippled the flames of twilight.
Into
the water of your soul fell the leaves.
...
Pablo Neruda (translated
by Alan Marshfield)
(For full translation
see the Kindle ebook The Translations of Alan Marshfield)
back
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of page
note
7.
Leaning
into afternoons I throw sad nets
into
your eyes, oceanic.
...
Pablo Neruda (translated
by Alan Marshfield)
(For full translation
see the Kindle ebook The Translations of Alan Marshfield)
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of page
note
8.
Drunk
on honey, white bee, you buzz in my soul
and
twist in slow spirals of smoke.
...
Pablo Neruda (translated
by Alan Marshfield)
(For full translation
see the Kindle ebook The Translations of Alan Marshfield)
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of page
note
9.
Drunk
on turpentine and long kisses,
founded
upon a solid sea frenzy,
I
pilot a summer sailboat of roses,
steering
towards the death of a slender day.
...
Pablo Neruda (translated
by Alan Marshfield)
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note
10.
We
have lost even this nightfall.
No
one saw us holding hands tonight
as
the blue evening fell upon the world.
...
Pablo Neruda (translated
by Alan Marshfield)
(For full translation
see the Kindle ebook The Translations of Alan Marshfield)
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of page
note
11.
Almost
beyond the sky, between two mountains
a
half-moon is anchored.
Revolving
night, wanderer, excavator of eyes.
Let
us see what stars are crushed in the pond.
...
Pablo Neruda (translated
by Alan Marshfield)
(For full translation
see the Kindle ebook The Translations of Alan Marshfield)
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of page
note
12.
Your
breast suffices my heart;
for
your freedom my wings will suffice.
What
was drowsing above your soul
will
rise from my lips to heaven.
...
Pablo Neruda (translated
by Alan Marshfield)
(For full translation
see the Kindle ebook The Translations of Alan Marshfield)
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of page
note
13.
I
have been marking with crosses of fire
the
white atlas of your body.
My
mouth was a spider traversing you, hiding itself.
In
you, behind you, thirsty and apprehensive.
...
Pablo Neruda (translated
by Alan Marshfield)
(For full translation
see the Kindle ebook The Translations of Alan Marshfield)
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of page
note
14.
You
play every day with the light of the universe.
Subtle
inspector, you reach into water and flowers.
You
are more than this little white head that I press
like
a cluster between my hands every day.
...
Pablo Neruda (translated
by Alan Marshfield)
(For full translation
see the Kindle ebook The Translations of Alan Marshfield)
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of page
note
15.
I
enjoy it when you are quiet, it’s as if you’re not here
but
hear me from far off—my voice does not touch you.
It’s
as if your eyes too had hurried away,
and
it looks as though a kiss had closed your lips.
...
Pablo Neruda (translated
by Alan Marshfield)
(For full translation
see the Kindle ebook The Translations of Alan Marshfield)
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of page
note
16.
This poem is a paraphrase of Poem 30
in Rabindranath Tagore’s The Gardener.
In
my sky at dusk you are like a cloud:
your
colour and form are the way I love them.
You
are mine, sweet-lipped woman, you are mine,
and
in you exist my infinite dreams.
...
Pablo Neruda (translated
by Alan Marshfield)
(For full translation
see the Kindle ebook The Translations of Alan Marshfield)
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of page
note
17.
Pondering,
confusing shadows in deep isolation.
You
are distant too, oh farther than anyone!
Pondering,
releasing birds, blurring images, interring lanterns.
Bell-tower
of fogs, how remote, way up there!
Choking
laments, grinding vague hopes, gloomy miller,
night
collapses face down on you, far from the city.
...
Pablo Neruda (translated
by Alan Marshfield)
(For full translation
see the Kindle ebook The Translations of Alan Marshfield)
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of page
note
18.
Here
I love you.
Among
dark pines the wind untangles.
The
moon phosphoresces above wayfaring waters.
The
days are all alike, following one on another.
...
Pablo Neruda (translated
by Alan Marshfield)
(For full translation
see the Kindle ebook The Translations of Alan Marshfield)
back
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of page
note
19.
Agile
tanned girl, the sun that forms fruit,
brings
on the grain and puckers seaweed,
made
your body, jubilant, and your bright eyes,
and
your mouth, smiling like water.
...
Pablo Neruda (translated
by Alan Marshfield)
(For full translation
see the Kindle ebook The Translations of Alan Marshfield)
back
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of page
note
20.
Tonight
I can write the saddest lines.
Write,
for example, ‘The night is starry,
and
the stars tremble blue in the distance.’
...
Pablo Neruda (translated
by Alan Marshfield)
(For full translation
see the Kindle ebook The Translations of Alan Marshfield)
back
top
of page
note
The
Song of Despair
From
the night I am in emerges the memory of you.
The
river tethers to the sea a dogged lament.
Bereft
like wharves in the dawn.
Bereft,
it is time to leave.
...
Pablo Neruda (translated
by Alan Marshfield)
(For full translation
see the Kindle ebook The Translations of Alan Marshfield)
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