I don’t love you, and yet I do… June 28, 2006

I received a marvelous present. A present filled with meaning and depth and beauty.
It’s a silver bracelet with the words of one of my favorite Pablo Neruda poems inscribed onto it… Fantastic fantastic present…  Nothing can turn a girl’s day around as quickly as a Neruda sonnet engraved on a silver bracelet.

On the bracelet, the poem is in it’s original Spanish version.

(From his book “Cien Sonetos de Amor”)

Sonnet XLIV

I don’t love you, and yet I do
for life itself is of two minds,
words are a ripple of silence,
fire is half cold

I love you in order to begin loving you,
to journey towad infinity
and to not stop loving you ever:
that is why I do not love you yet.

I love you and yet I do not,
as if I had in my hands the reins of destiny
and an uncertain, unfortunate destiny.
My love has two lives to love you.
That is why I love you when I do not and that is why I love you when I do.

***

Sabrás que no te amo y que te amo
puesto que de dos modos es la vida,
la palabra es un ala del silencio
el fuego tiene mitad de frío.

Yo te amo para comenzar a amarte,
para recomenzar el infinito
y para no dejar de amarte nunca:
por eso no te amo todavía.

Te amo y no te amo,
como si tuviera en mis manos las llaves del destino
y un incierto destino desdichado.
Mi amor tiene dos vidas para amarte.
Por eso te amo cuando no te amo y por eso te amo cuando te amo..