Neruda III

This week I have been sharing the three parts of the poem Ode and Burgeonings by Pablo Neruda with you. As I mentioned on Monday this is a favorite of his poems, one that I have read time and time again and get caught up in every time. Enjoy.

Read Part I, click here and to read Part II click here.

Ode and Burgeonings – Pablo Neruda

III

My wild girl, we have had
to regain time
and march backward, in the distance
of our lives, kiss after kiss
gathering from one place what we gave
without joy, discovering in another
the secret road
that gradually brought your feet close to mine,
and so beneath my mouth
you see again the unfulfilled  plant
of your life putting out its roots
toward my heart that was waiting for you.
And one by one the nights
between our separated cities
are joined to the night that unites us.
The light of each day,
its flame or its repose,
they deliver to us, taking them from time,
and so our treasure
is disinterred in shadow or light.
And so our kisses kiss life:
all love is enclosed in our love:
all thirst ends in our embrace.
Here we are at last face to face,
we have met,
we have lost nothing.
We have felt each other lip to lip,
we have changed a thousand times
between us death and life,
all that we are bringing
like dead medals
we threw to the bottom of the sea,
all that we learned
was of no use to us:
we begin again,
we end again
death and life.
And here we survive,
pure, with the purity that we created,
broader than the earth that could not lead us astray
eternal as the fire that will burn
as long as life endures