An Easter Love Poem

 

Photo: Kate Brenton

 

XLV

Pablo Neruda 

     Don't go far off, not even for a day, because - 

because- I don't know how to say it: a day is long

and I will be waiting for you, as in an empty station

when the trains are parked off somewhere, asleep.

Don't leave me, even for an hour, because

then the little drops of anguish will all run together, 

the smoke that roams looking for a home will drift

into me, choking my lost heart.

Oh, may your silhouette never dissolve on the beach;

may your eyelids never flutter into the empty distance.

Don't leave me for a second, my dearest,

because in that moment you'll have gone so far

I'll wander mazily over all the earth, asking,

Will you come back? Will you leave me here, dying?

100 Love Sonnets: Cien sonetos de amor (Texas Pan American Series) (English and Spanish Edition)