Poem V - Pablo Neruda

For you to hear,

my words

sometimes grow thin

as seagull tracks on the beach.

Necklace, drunken bell

for your hands smooth as grapes.

And I watch them from far away, my words.

They are more mine than yours.

They climb up my old pain like ivy.

As ivy climbs up humid walls.

You are the one to blame for this bloodthirsty sport.

They flee from my dark cavern.

You fill everything, you are in everything.

Before you they lived in the loneliness that you came to fill,

and they are more used to my sadness than you are.

Now I want them to say what I wish to tell you,

so that you will hear me as I want you to hear.

The wind of fear still sweeps them along.

Hurricanes in dreams sometimes still strike them down.

You hear other voices in my bitter voice.

Cries from old mouths, the blood of old pleas.

Love me, my companion. Don’t desert me. Follow me.

Follow me, my companion, in this wave of fear.

But my words are tinged with your love.

You inhabit everything, you are in everything.

I will make an endless necklace out of my words

for your white hands, smooth as grapes.

---

Pablo Neruda (1904 – 1973) Chile

Translated by Johannes Beilharz

Source: Literature and Art Pages of Johannes Beilharz