Quotes from Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“I want
To do with you what spring does with the cherry trees.”
― Pablo Neruda, quote from Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“Tonight I can write the saddest lines
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.”
― Pablo Neruda, quote from Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“Then love knew it was called love.
And when I lifted my eyes to your name,
suddenly your heart showed me my way”
― Pablo Neruda, quote from Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“I am no longer in love with her, that's certain, but maybe I love her. Love is so short, forgetting is so long.”
― Pablo Neruda, quote from Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“It was at that age
that poetry came in search of me.”
― Pablo Neruda, quote from Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“Who writes your name in letters of smoke among the stars of the south?
Oh let me remember you as you were before you existed.”
― Pablo Neruda, quote from Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“And I watch my words from a long way off.
They are more yours than mine.
They climb on my old suffering like ivy.”
― Pablo Neruda, quote from Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“وفي عينيك الحزينتين يبدأ وطن الحلم.”
― Pablo Neruda, quote from Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“There were thirst and hunger, and you were the fruit.
There were grief and the ruins, and you were the miracle.”
― Pablo Neruda, quote from Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“مثل البحر، مثل الزمن. فيكِ غَرِقَ كل شيء!”
― Pablo Neruda, quote from Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“Every day you play with the light of the universe.”
― Pablo Neruda, quote from Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“Here I love you and the horizon hides you in vain.
I love you still among these cold things.
Sometimes my kisses go on those heavy vessels
that cross the sea towards no arrival.
I see myself forgotten like those old anchors.
The piers sadden when the afternoon moors there.
My life grows tired, hungry to no purpose.
I love what I do not have. You are so far.
My loathing wrestles with the slow twilights.
But night comes and starts to sing to me.”
― Pablo Neruda, quote from Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“sometimes i get up at dawn, and even my soul is wet.”
― Pablo Neruda, quote from Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“How you must have suffered getting accustomed to me,
my savage, solitary soul, my name that sends them all running.
So many times we have seen the morning star burn, kissing our eyes,
and over our heads the grey light unwinds in turning fans.”
― Pablo Neruda, quote from Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“كم هو قصيرٌ الحب، وكم هو طويلٌ النسيان”
― Pablo Neruda, quote from Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“كنتُ أتذكّرك وروحي تضيق
بهذا الحزن الذي تعرفين.
أين كنتِ آنئذٍ؟
بين أيّ أناس؟
أيّة كلمات كنتِ تقولين؟
لماذا يداهمُني كل هذا الحب
عندما أشعر بالحزن، وأَشعرُ بكِ بعيدة؟”
― Pablo Neruda, quote from Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“Ya no la quiero, es cierto, pero tal vez la quiero.
Es tan corto el amor, y es tan largo el olvido.”
― Pablo Neruda, quote from Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“تعجبينني حين تصمتين وأنت كالبعيدة.
وأنتِ كأنك تئنّين، فراشة ترفّّ.
وتَسمعينني من بعيد، وصوتي لا يصل إليكِ.

دعيني أصمت مع صمتك.”
― Pablo Neruda, quote from Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“Entre los labios y la voz, algo se va muriendo.
Algo con alas de pájaro, algo de angustia y de olvido”
― Pablo Neruda, quote from Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“نحن، اللذَيْن كنّا آنذاك، لم نعد كما كُنّا”
― Pablo Neruda, quote from Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“The morning is full of storm
in the heart of summer.

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

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.”
― Pablo Neruda, quote from Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“أُحِبُّ ما ليس عندي. كم أنتِ بعيدة.”
― Pablo Neruda, quote from Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“أنا اليائسُ، الكلمةُ بلا أصداء،
الذي فقد كل شيء، وكان لديه كل شيء.”
― Pablo Neruda, quote from Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“لأنّي في ليالٍ مثل هذه أخذتها بين ذراعيّ،
روحي ليست راضيةً بأنّي أضعتُها.”
― Pablo Neruda, quote from Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“Tonight I Can Write

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.”
― Pablo Neruda, quote from Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“وعصافيرُ كانت تنامُ في روحِك
أيقظتُها، وكم فرّتْ وهاجرتْ.”
― Pablo Neruda, quote from Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“The birds of night peck at the first stars
that flash like my soul when I love you.”
― Pablo Neruda, quote from Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

“أستطيع أن أكتب الأشعار الأكثر حزناً هذه الليلة.”
― Pablo Neruda, quote from Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

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