Love Sonnet XVII
by Pablo Neruda
translation by Michael R. Burch
I do not love you like coral or topaz,
or the blazing hearth’s incandescent white flame;
I love you like phantoms embraced in the dark ...
secretly, in shadows, unrevealed & unnamed.
I love you like shrubs that refuse to bloom
while pregnant with the radiance of mysterious flowers;
now thanks to your love an earthy fragrance
lives dimly in my body’s odors.
I love you without knowing—how, when, why or where;
I love you forthrightly, without complications or care;
I love you this way because I know no other.
Here, where “I” no longer exists ... so it seems ...
so close that your hand on my chest is my own,
so close that your eyes close gently on my dreams.
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