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Poem Twenty, from 20 poems of Love and One of Desperation | Poem by Pablo Neruda

 
Pablo Neruda
translated by Jodey Bateman
POEM TWENTY 

from Twenty Poems of Love and One of Desperation

 
I could write the very saddest verses tonight 
Writing, for example "The night is sprinkled 
With stars sparkling blue, far away." 

The night wind whirls in the sky and sings. 

I could write the very saddest verses tonight 
I loved her and at times she also loved me. 

On nights like this I had her in  my arms. 
I kissed her so many times under the infinite sky. 

She loved me, at times I also loved her. 
How could I not love her big staring eyes? 

I could write the very saddest verses tonight. 
To think I don't have her. To feel that I have lost her. 

To hear the immense night, even more immense without her. 
And the verses fall on the soul like dew on the pasture. 

What does it matter that my love couldn't keep her? 
The night is full of stars and she's not with me. 

That's all. Far off someone is singing. Far off 
My love is not used to having lost her. 

How my glance looks for her to get close to her. 
My heart looks for her and she's not with me. 

The same night that turns the same trees white. 
We aren't now the same way we were then. 

I no longer love her, that's certain, but how much I loved her. 
My voice searched on the wind to touch her ear. 

Someone else's, she's someone else's. Like before I kissed her. 
Her voice, her bright body. Her infinite eyes. 

I no longer love her, that's certain, but perhaps I love her. 
Love lasts so short and forgetting takes so long. 

But on nights like this I had her in my arms. 
My heart is not used to having lost her. 

Although this may be the last pain that she causes me 
And these may be the last verses that I write her.

..=.
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Other Jodey Bateman translations of Pablo Neruda:
I'll Explain Some Things
Soneto LXXIII
What Spain Was Like
An Ode For Ironing
Beasts
Ode to a Woman Gardening
Ode To Bird Watching
Ode to Broken Things
Ode to Clothing / Oda al Traje
Ode to Olive Oil / Oda al Aceite
Ode to Some Yellow Flowers
Ode to the Artichoke
Ode to the Dictionary
Ode to the Lemon
Ode to the Piano
Ode to the Smell of Wood
Opium In The East (excerpt)
Poem Twenty
GAUTAMA CHRIST
For Everybody
From the Heights of Maccho Picchu
Poems by Pablo Neruda, Pulitizer Prize winner
Statues
Status Report
The Arrival in Madrid
The Heavenly Poets
The Old Women of the Ocean
The Turtle
To Sit Down
To the Foot From Its Child
Triangles