“I can write the saddest poem of all tonight. Write, for instance: "The night is full of stars, and the stars, blue, shiver in the distance." The night wind whirls in the sky and sings. I can write the saddest poem of all tonight. I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too. On nights like this, I held her in my arms. I kissed her so many times under the infinite sky. She loved me, sometimes I loved her. How could I not have loved her large, still eyes? I can write the saddest poem of all tonight. To think I don't have her. To feel that I've lost her. To hear the immense night, more immense without her. And the poem falls to the soul as dew to grass. What does it matter that my love couldn't keep her. The night is full of stars and she is not with me. That's all. Far away, someone sings. Far away. My soul is lost without her. As if to bring her near, my eyes search for her. My heart searches for her and she is not with me. The same night that whitens the same trees. We, we who were, we are the same no longer. I no longer love her, true, but how much I loved her. My voice searched the wind to touch her ear. Someone else's. She will be someone else's. As she once belonged to my kisses. Her voice, her light body. Her infinite eyes. I no longer love her, true, but perhaps I love her. Love is so short and oblivion so long. Because on nights like this I held her in my arms, my soul is lost without her. Although this may be the last pain she causes me, and this may be the last poem I write for her.”

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About Pablo Neruda

Chilean poet, diplomat and politician

Pablo Neruda was a Chilean poet, diplomat, and politician. He won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature, and became known as a poet at 13. His work ranged widely, from surrealist poems and historical epics to political manifestos and a prose autobiography. He is also known for passionate love poetry, including the poems in Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, published in 1924.

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Books by Pablo Neruda

Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada

1969

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Confieso que he vivido

2001

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Memorial de Isla Negra

1982

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Canto general

1968

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