I have just discovered the amazing poet, Pablo Neruda, and this is the poem that immediately sucked me in.
I do not love you except because I love you
I do no love you except because I love you;
I go from loving to not loving you.
From waiting to not waiting for you
My heart moves from cold to fire.
I love you only because it’s you the one I love;
I hate you deeply, and hating you
Bend to you, and the measure of my changing love for you
Is that I do not see you but love blindly.
Maybe January light will consume
My heart with its cruel
Ray, stealing my key to true calm.
Is this part of the story I am the one who
Dies, the only one, and I will die of love because I love you.
Because I love you, Love, in fire and blood.
Oh Mae … my daughter fell in love with Pablo Neruda in high school – I had barely heard of him – and I think he is still her favourite poet a few years on. In fact she was saying the other day that she’s sorry she lent her book of his poems to someone because she never got it back and she wants that particular version. BTW Have a lovely Christmas.
I wish I had heard of him earlier! I’m not drawn to poetry but his is very powerful. Your daughter should hunt down that person she lent her book to! It should be easy with facebook these days!
Merry Christmas to you too, Sue.
Neruda is the best. I don’t actually like much poetry, but Neruda’s poetry actually manages to speak to me and does so in the most beautiful of ways. So glad you finally discovered him!
I’m in the same boat. I rarely connect with poetry and it is the one thing I’ve always struggled with (which is embarrassing since I’m an English Lit major!) but I’m flicking through a volume of his poetry and they’re pretty amazing and mostly heartbreaking..
Yay for discovering Neruda. I love his poems, this one especially, and always wish I could read the original. Merry Christmas to you!
love love love Neruda!! And by the way – I just posted a link to your blog in a post about “Lucky” by Alice Sebold, hope it is okay?
I love Neruda. His love poems are sweet, but simple, like pouring out from a sincere heart. I found him after a long read of Shakespeare and Milton, and it changes the air of my Muse. Just enjoy more.