Quotes from Pablo Neruda

When the bones are all gone who lives in the final dust? Cuando ya se fueron los huesos quien vive en el polvo final?

Si consideras largo y loco el viento de banderas que pasa por mi vida y te decides a dejarme a la orilla del corazón en que tengo raíces, piensa, que en ese día, a esa hora, levantaré los brazos y saldrán mis raíces a buscar otra tierra.

Pero tú y yo, amor mío, estamos juntos, juntos desde la ropa a las raíces, juntos de otoño, de agua, de caderas, hasta ser sólo tú, sólo yo juntos.

Soy prisionero con la puerta abierta, con el mundo abierto.

Si he muerto y no me he dado cuenta A quién le pregunto ahora?

you, my friend, could be the smoke's daughter, you who may not have known you were born of fire and rage, lightning over flaming lava etched your violet mouth, your sex in the scorched oak's moss like a ring in a nest, your fingers there in the flames, your compact body rose from leaves of fire that make me recall there were bakers in your family tree, you're still the rainforest's bread, ash from violent wheat

Se d'improvviso mi dimentichi, non cercarmi, chè già ti avrò dimenticata.

Las lagrimas que no se lloran Esperan en pequenos lagos? Do tears not yet spilled wait in small lakes? O seran rios invisibles Que corren hacia la tristeza? Or are they invisible rivers that run toward sadness?

Oh let me remember you as you were before you existed.

Under your ski the moon is alive.

Un seul mot, usé, mais qui brille comme une vieille pièce de monnaie: merci!

I loved you without knowing that I love you; I tried to think about you.

Caen pensamientos de amor en los volcanes extinguidos? Do thoughts of love fall into extinct volcanoes?

Lovely one, your eyes are too big for your face, your eyes are too big for the earth. There are countries, there are rivers, in your eyes, my country is your eyes, I walk through them, they light the world through which I walk, lovely one. — Pablo Neruda, from "Lovely One," The Captain's Verses: Love Poems . (New Directions Publishing Corporation; Bilingual edition July 2004) Originally published 1952.

El agua anda descalza por las calles mojadas.

Sabrás que no te amo y que te amo puesto que de dos modos es la vida, la palabra es un ala de silencio, el fuego tiene una mitad de frío. Yo te amo para comenzar a amarte, para recomenzar el infinito y para no dejar de amarte nunca: por eso no te amo todavía. Te amo y no te amo como si tuviera en mis manos las llaves de la dicha y un incierto destino desdichado. Mi amor tiene dos vidas para amarte. Por eso te amo cuando no te amo y por eso te amo cuando te amo.

In you the rivers sing and my soul flees in them as you desire, and you send it where you will. Aim my road on your bow of hope and in a frenzy I will free my flock of arrows.

Para mi corazón basta tu pecho, para tu libertad bastan mis alas.

De nadie seré, solo de ti. Hasta que mis huesos se vuelvan cenizas y mi corazón deje de latir.

despite the mute coldness of the teeth and the hatred of the eyes, and the battle of dying beasts that watch over oblivion, in some summer place we are together watching with lips invaded by thirst. —Pablo Neruda, from "II: FURIES AND SORROWS," The Poetry of Pablo Neruda (Farrar Straus Giroux, 2005)

You fill everything, you fill everything.

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

He was my friend in everyday life and now I have lost his affection, which was part of my daily bread. No one will be able to give me what he has taken with him, because his active brotherly spirit was one of my life's treasured luxuries.

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.