Pablo Neruda: Tonight I Can Write The Saddest Lines

For any of you who love poetry, you're sure to love Tonight I Can Write The Saddest Lines, a beautiful poem by Pablo Neruda. He was an amazing poet who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. I've posted the poem below. Meanwhile, a video where you can hear actor Andy Garcia read the poem out loud can be found on my myspace page. Just click to view all of my blog entries. Then, once the page turns over, scroll down towards the bottom to locate the video.

Pablo Neruda (1904-1971)

Born: Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto
Place of Birth: Parral, Chile
Occupation: Poet, Diplomat, Political figure


Tonight I Can Write The Saddest Lines - Pablo Neruda

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

Write, for example, "The night is starry
and the stars are blue and shiver in the distance."

The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.

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

Through nights like this one I held her in my arms.
I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.

She loved me, sometimes I loved her too.
How could one not have loved 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.

To hear the immense night, still more immense without her.
And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture.

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

This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the distance.
My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

My sight tries to find her as though to bring her closer.
My heart looks for her, and she is not with me.

The same night whitening the same trees.
We, of that time, are no longer the same.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but how I loved her.
My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.

Another's. She will be another's. As she was before my kisses.
Her voice, her bright body. Her infinite eyes.

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

Because through nights like this one I held her in my arms
my soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer
and these the last verses that I write for her.

__________________________________________________________

My love, if I could have written this poem for you, those are the words that I would've chosen to express what is and will always be in my heart and soul, now and forever. Goodbye sweet, sweet angel, who saved my life not so long ago. May you become that beautiful women you so long to be. Goodbye, until our paths cross again on a starry night.

Love is so short, forgetting is so long.

JB