Love

photo by Sylke Vonk

Last Saturday my daughter, Chelsea, married Marcelo. It was a lovely, intimate wedding at Unitarian Universalist Church West. The minister, Suzelle Lynch, picked out the following poem by Pablo Neruda to include as a reading. It's beautiful and I thought I'd share it. The original Spanish version follows the English translation.

Love Sonnet by Pablo Neruda
Maybe nothingness is to be without your presence,
Without you moving, slicing the noon
Like a blue flower, without you walking
Later through the fog and the cobbles,

Without the light you carry in your hand,
Golden, which maybe others will not see,
Which maybe no one knew was growing
Like the red beginnings of a rose.

In short, without your presence: without your coming
Suddenly, incitingly, to know my life,
Gust of a rosebush, wheat of wind:

Since then I am because you are,
Since then you are, I am, we are,
And through love I will be, you will be, we'll be.

Love Sonnet by Pablo Neruda (Spanish Version)
Tal vez no ser es ser sin que tú seas,
Sin que vayas cortando el mediodía
Como una flor azul, sin que camines
Más tarde por la niebla y los ladrillos,

Sin esa luz que llevas en la mano
Que tal vez otros no verán dorada,
Que tal vez nadie supo que crecía
Como el origen rojo de la rosa,

Sin que seas, en fin, sin que vinieras
Brusca, incitante, a conocer mi vida,
Ráfaga de rosal, trigo del viento,

Y desde entonces soy porque tú eres,
Y desde entonces eres, soy y somos,
Y por amor seré, serás, seremos