Sunday, November 14, 2004

Neruda's Sonnet XVII

CUD

why do i love you? i do not know exactly... i can not specify when or where or how. but it's as if i knew (as to the course of how i knew, it eludes me) when i saw you. it's as if i had a memory of you even before i saw your face or heard your name. by the time we locked eyes, i already knew your scent (nutmeg peach). i already knew the feel of you... down to the salt of your skin. my fingers catch sparks at the mere thought of touching you. there is no shame. no apologies... there are never those for loving you. ahhhh. the mystery of our rhythm...

i love you 10, 100, a million times more than i can probably express. all i know is this (and only this) : my love for you is absolute. never half-way. never one foot outside the door. never selfish but neither acquiescent. never trusting not to hurt but neither untrusting not to mend. never trusting not to fall out of love but neither untrusting not to love. never trusting in settling for anything less than this.

pardon my wordlessness.. you are much to prodigious (and god-classly so..) for my rhetorics.

Sonnet XVII

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz
Or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I LOVE YOU AS CERTAIN DARK THINGS ARE TO BE LOVED,
In secret, BETWEEN THE SHADOW AND THE SOUL.
I love you as the plant that never blooms
But carries in itself the light of hidden flowers
Thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
Risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you WITHOUT KNOWING how, or when, or from where.
I love you straight-forwardly, WITHOUT COMPLEXITIES OR PRIDE;
So I LOVE YOU BECAUSE I KNOW NO OTHER WAY THAN THIS.
Where I do not exist, nor you.
So close that your hand on my chest is my hand.
So close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.