Suffice to say I don't think the readable length of a blog post will ever do any justice to the peans I wish to sing for this man and hence I shall refrain from making any such attempt. Instead, here are four lines from his first compilation of poems "Twenty love poems and a song of despair" , that, incidentally, he wrote when he was 20.
The love poems are earthy and full of passion and express love in a such a direct way that it makes one glow just thinking of a love like that. However, since I am the melancholy-loving kind, my favorite in the collection is the one "song of despair".
Is it weird that I wish someday I am able to love someone so much that the thought of not being with them brings me despair such as the poem describes?
Anyway , moving on. The full poem can be found in a here
The most poignant four lines are these:
In you the wars and the flights accumulated
From you the wings of the song birds rose.
You swallowed everything, like distance.
Like the sea, like time. In you everything sank!
I am not going to spoil it by interpreting in horrible sounding words of my own :)
God bless Neruda's trabslators
