Happy Birthday to one of the greats! Pablo Neruda won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1971. Although his poems are my favorite his writing was not limited to poems alone. His legacy of prose and poetry will certainly never allow his memory to fade. In that spirit, Happy Birthday, Pablo Neruda and here's one of my favorite Neruda poems:
By Pablo Neruda
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 because 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.
Do you have a Pablo Neruda favorite? Let us know what it might be.
Tonight I can write the saddest lines
"The well-known name of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda (born July 12, 1904) is actually a pseudonym, inspired by Czech poet Jan Neruda."-Goodreads
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