Quiero hacer contigo 

Lo que la primavera hace con los cerezos 

I want to do with you 

What spring does with the cherry trees 

(Poem 14, Translation by W.S. Merwin) 

These are the last two verses in Pablo Neruda’s fourteenth poem in the collection Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair. Arguably his most celebrated verses. Pablo Neruda’s poetry is strongly evocative in expressing primordial, universal feelings that he is not afraid to uncover. He often employs beautiful euphemisms to talk about his romantic and erotic desires and is mostly renowned for his complete adoration of the female figure in his writings. This week, I read his most famous collection, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair.

Before sharing my thoughts on the collection itself, let me provide some information about how it was created and what it looks like. Pablo Neruda is a Chilean author. He was 19 at the time of writing this collection. Yes, 19. The poems are usually in free verse, although there is a good amount for which the Alexandrine verse was used. 

The vocabulary is simple yet effective and holds great gravitas. There are words that you will see over and over again: leaves, flame, birds, waves. All such phenomena are part of a well-known poetic tradition regarding love poems. Yet, Neruda makes them his own. He uses them like no one else does. He reinvents them over and over. 

The title is pretty self-explanatory. It’s twenty love poems where the woman is worshipped and praised (although I would argue poem 20 makes transpire hints of despair already) and a song of despair where loneliness and complete disillusion take their toll.

The poems do not refer to a specific woman as I had previously thought. It becomes quite clear, however, when you consider how idolised the woman figure is.It is the sole and vital protagonist. Neruda’s poems could not exist without it. Even being attributed characteristics of a deity or an ethereal being at times. 

What a pleasure it was to read Neruda’s words this week. Every single poem captured me in one way or another. 

Here are my thoughts:

Neruda’s poetry is sexual in a veiled way. His euphemisms have obvious implications that cannot be ignored, yet sound so beautiful and almost sacred (I’m especially thinking of poems 1 and 8). 

Se parecen tus senos a los caracoles blancos

Ha venido a dormirse en tu vientre una mariposa de sombra

Your breasts seem like white snails 

A butterfly of shadow has come to sleep on your belly 

(Poem 8, Translation by W.S. Merwin) 

The woman’s body is often compared to nature: dew on cupped flowers, white hills, and vast oceans.

The female figure permeates all and is all, the lines are drenched with panism. She could easily be associated with the primordial goddess Cybele. She creates and governs all. She is impetuous in her doing. Nature changes depending on her and so does the poet, utterly helpless. (Poems 2,3,4, 12 and 15).

Eres como la noche, callada y constelada

Tu silencio es de estrella tan lejano y sencillo 

You are like the night with its stillness and constellations. 

Your silence is that of a star, as remote and candid. 

(Poem 15, Translation by W.S. Merwin) 

Finally, the poet is a pivotal figure, but always in contrast to the woman. Her absence makes him distraught. Her negligence haunts him. Her silence allures him. 

He lives for her. His whole being is but a mere reaction to the woman’s actions. In poem 6, the poet obsesses over memories of the woman in the past. In poem 8, the poet can only watch this perfect creature while he drowns in his despair. In poem 9, the collection takes the form of an odyssey-like journey back to one’s beloved. 

She’s an angelic being whose mere presence satiates human urges. She marks the start of the poet’s real life, and her leave thus marks him that much more. He is inextricably linked to her. He is what she thinks of him. 

Por qué se me vendrá todo el amor de golpe 

Cuando me siento triste, y te siento lejana? 

Why will the whole of love come on me suddenly 

When I am sad and feel you are far away? 

(Poem 10, Translation by W.S. Merwin) 

Pablo Neruda is a lover. He knows what it means to love, and in his simplicity, he tells all of us. He cherishes, he adores, and he fully embraces his beloved. He knows what it is to love boundlessly, to love even when not loved.