
The Queen
I have named you queen.
There are taller than you, taller.
There are purer than you, purer.
There are lovelier than you, lovelier.
But you are the queen.
When you go through the streets
No one recognizes you.
No one sees your crystal crown, no one looks
At the carpet of red gold
That you tread as you pass,
The nonexistent carpet.
And when you appear
All the rivers sound
In my body, bells
Shake the sky,
And a hymn fills the world.
Only you and I,
Only you and I, my love,
Listen to me.
- – - – - – – -
LA REINA
Yo te he nombrado reina.
Hay más altas que tú, más altas.
Hay más puras que tú, más puras.
Hay más bellas que tú, hay más bellas.
Pero tú eres la reina.
Cuando vas por las calles
nadie te reconoce.
Nadie ve tu corona de cristal, nadie mira
la alfombra de oro rojo
que pisas donde pasas,
la alfombra que no existe.
Y cuando asomas
suenan todos los ríos
en mi cuerpo, sacuden
el cielo las campanas,
y un himno llena el mundo.
Sólo tú y yo,
sólo tú y yo, amor mío,
lo escuchamos.

—————-
Drunk as Drunk
Drunk as drunk on turpentine
From your open kisses,
Your wet body wedged
Between my wet body and the strake
Of our boat that is made out of flowers,
Feasted, we guide it – our fingers
Like tallows adorned with yellow metal -
Over the sky’s hot rim,
The day’s last breath in our sails.
Pinned by the sun between solstice
And equinox, drowsy and tangled together
We drifted for months and woke
With the bitter taste of land on our lips,
Eyelids all sticky, and we longed for lime
And the sound of a rope
Lowering a bucket down its well. Then,
We came by night to the Fortunate Isles, And lay like fish
Under the net of our kisses.
Ebrio de Trementina
Ebrio de trementina y largos besos,
estival, el velero de las rosas dirijo,
torcido hacia la muerte del delgado dia,
cimentado en el s�lido frenesi marino.
Palido y amarrado a mi agua devorante
cruzo en el agrio olor del clima descubierto,
aun vestido de gris y sonidos amargos,
y una cimera triste de abandonada espuma.
Voy, duro de pasiones, montado en mi ola unica,
lunar, solar, ardiente y frio, repentino,
dormido en la garganta de las afortunadas
islas blancas y dulces como caderas frescas.
Tiembla en la noche humeda mi vestido de besos
locamente cargado de electricas gestiones,
de modo heroico dividido en suenos
y embriagadoras rosas practicandose en mi.
Aguas arriba, en medio de las olas externas,
tu paralelo cuerpo se sujeta en mis brazos
como un pez infinitamente pegado a mi alma
rapido y lento en la energia subceleste.
beautifull poems from a very elegant man
thank you to remind us these genious that gives us dreams
I always loved his work, and it reminds me of a Chilean/Italian beau of mine, Octavio, who introduced me to Neruda’s work…Thank you for reminding me, too!
Wow, some stunning words and great great poetry….
Wish someone would whisper similar things in my ears….
If you find him, please share his details…
The Queen is my favorite Neruda poem. As such, forgive me, but I must mention that the last line (in the English translation) should read “Listen to it” (referring to the hymn). Love the site!
Sorry for responding so late! I’ll change the line immediately!
xoxo
Also recommended is the dedication to his longtime wife, Matilde Urrutia, at the beginning of “Cien sonetos de amor”:
“When I set this task for myself, I knew very well that down the right sides of sonnets, with elegant discriminating taste, poets of all times have arranged rhymes that sound like silver, or crystal, or cannonfire. But–with great humility–I made these sonnets out of wood…Out of such softened relics, then, with hatchet and machete and pocketknife, I built up these lumber piles of love, and with fourteen boards each I built little houses, so that your eyes, which I adore and sing to, might live in them.”
…and the best part of all:
“Now that I have declared the foundations of my love, I surrender this century to you: wooden sonnets that rise only because you gave them life.”
Nice selections, I used to live in Valdivia…am starting to love his poems again…Crepusculario, little known in US, was his first work, and has some the poems best known in Chile–a year later he published 20 Poemas, which is great to compare with Captain’s Verses (The Queen), much later in his life when he was with Matilde, his last and greatest love…
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