The poem
Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
Write, for example, 'The night is starry and the stars are blue and shiver in the distance.'
The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.
Tonight I can write the saddest lines. I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.
Through nights like this one I held her in my arms. I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.
She loved me, sometimes I loved her too. How could one not have loved her great still eyes.
Tonight I can write the saddest lines. To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her.
To hear the immense night, still more immense without her. And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture.
What does it matter that my love could not keep her. The night is starry and she is not with me.
This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the distance. My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.
My sight tries to find her as though to bring her closer. My heart looks for her, and she is not with me.
The same night whitening the same trees. We, of that time, are no longer the same.
I no longer love her, that's certain, but how I loved her. My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.
Another's. She will be another's. As she was before my kisses. Her voice, her bright body. Her infinite eyes.
I no longer love her, that's certain, but maybe I love her. Love is so short, forgetting is so long.
Because through nights like this one I held her in my arms my soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.
Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer and these the last verses that I write for her.
translated by W.S. Merwin
A jilted lover wallows in sadness as he realizes his beloved has left him for another. The difficulty of reconciling the romantic "starry night" with his beclouded loneliness epitomizes a lover in pain amidst his beloved's happiness in someone else's arms. True love can only wish for the beloved's happiness and freedom.
I'm saddened to see this new system able to bring up only one poem by the great W. S. Merwin, and that one only a translation, as if he were not himself among the finest poets ever to write in English. Poetry Connection may become able to integrate and deliver massive information for the online appreciator of poetry, but it is sad that today in response to inquiry on Merwin it offers only Pablo Neruda's "Tonight I…
Read the whole commentI'm saddened to see this new system able to bring up only one poem by the great W. S. Merwin, and that one only a translation, as if he were not himself among the finest poets ever to write in English.
Poetry Connection may become able to integrate and deliver massive information for the online appreciator of poetry, but it is sad that today in response to inquiry on Merwin it offers only Pablo Neruda's "Tonight I Can Write". This is no very special poem in English notwithstanding Merwin's brilliance. It may be heart-rendingly beautiful in Spanish by sound and literary echo lost in English, but it certainly does not do what I seek in poetry. I hate to labor the point, but when I look for Merwin I do not want Neruda. --rms
The longing and pineing of this poem is the perfect idea of a person with unrequited love. The image of the starry night makes his love a fluid beauty. I can see him writing this poem next to an open window on a clear night. He put into words the way I feel.
I agree that true love can only wish for the beloved's happiness and freedom. If I remember correctly, the lonliness eventually fades...I think the poem says it all..and so perfectly..as it captures the beloveds inner struggle..I loves her...then he will say I no longer love her..but a few lines later..he says I loved her and then I love her...This is the inner struggle when you go through something like…
Read the whole commentI agree that true love can only wish for the beloved's happiness and freedom. If I remember correctly, the lonliness eventually fades...I think the poem says it all..and so perfectly..as it captures the beloveds inner struggle..I loves her...then he will say I no longer love her..but a few lines later..he says I loved her and then I love her...This is the inner struggle when you go through something like this..inside you go back and forth..its amazing how he catches that..that I would not try to even write my own on the subject. I like the ending..because it shows he is going to move on..and he makes it a definite point to stop writing about her..In order to do so. The fact that he has to say it..shows how hard it is for him to do.. Its like he wants her to know he is moving on..otherwise he would not havse said anything..but I think the whole thing was a painful process..Just my interpretation...
Neruda's brilliance lies in writing this simple poem on love which is a tribute to his beloved but one that is fraught with pain and longing. The contradictions regarding feelings for his beloved against the magical background of the starry night suggests the harmony that love can bring but at the same time not ensure the permanency of the beloved's presence and/or feelings.this is clearly a self-reflexive poem that…
Read the whole commentNeruda's brilliance lies in writing this simple poem on love which is a tribute to his beloved but one that is fraught with pain and longing. The contradictions regarding feelings for his beloved against the magical background of the starry night suggests the harmony that love can bring but at the same time not ensure the permanency of the beloved's presence and/or feelings.this is clearly a self-reflexive poem that comments on the art and act of writing as the beloved is a source of inspiration and jealosy as well since she has moved on leaving him to combat his emotions by himself.It is finally the act of writing that acts as a salvation and seems to contribute to the healing process. the poem remains an enigma but beautifuuly portrays the feelings of a young person who has experienced immensely the power of love.
i listened to the tracks on the way to work one morning.. never imagined such words could move me to tears... and it still tugs my heart whenever i listen or read them.. these are my favourite lines..
"love is so short, forgetting them so long"
sad.. but just so honest and true.
this poem has touched me a lot....."tonight i can write the saddest lines" is my favorite verse....it shows how much the pain and heartache the person in the poem feels...this poem makes me feel loved and sorrowfulness...it makes me think back to times where i was in that same position and helps me through the hard time of the love process!!!!!
Met a wonderful man 3 months before i married my boyfriend for 5 years...I had a relationhip with him that moved me,i fell in love with him coz i think he loved me in a different way...But i grew up in a very traditional and conservative environment, how i wished i can cancel my wedding day...,but that will hurt my family and the guy who waited for me for 5 years...So i have to give up the new guy and say…
Read the whole commentMet a wonderful man 3 months before i married my boyfriend for 5 years...I had a relationhip with him that moved me,i fell in love with him coz i think he loved me in a different way...But i grew up in a very traditional and conservative environment, how i wished i can cancel my wedding day...,but that will hurt my family and the guy who waited for me for 5 years...So i have to give up the new guy and say goodbye...one night,He read me this poem over the phone (that time i didnt really understand what the message was,but i cried listening to him saying...Love is so short,forgetting is so long)...few days later he sent me a copy...and that hurt me so much,the poem was amazing,Pablo was so amazing...I wanted to run away and be with him,but it was too late for me...I'm married now...i can say that i regret not able to choose him,but i think God has other plans for me.
neruda i always thought was too much about love .but this is one simple and nice poem.i could understand every lien as though it were from mien own head.am not sure what it evokes in me.im deeply saddened by these lines.i wish i knew why he wrote them too.
I have my own interpretation of this poem, but that is my own, and not what I am writing about. I read something when I was browsing through the comments on my favorite poem which moved me so strongly to respond to it. Comment 1 of 9, "true love can only wish for the beloved's happiness and freedom"....no. This is not human nature. Do not mistaken me, true love does not wish for the beloved's misfortune and harm,…
Read the whole commentI have my own interpretation of this poem, but that is my own, and not what I am writing about. I read something when I was browsing through the comments on my favorite poem which moved me so strongly to respond to it. Comment 1 of 9, "true love can only wish for the beloved's happiness and freedom"....no. This is not human nature. Do not mistaken me, true love does not wish for the beloved's misfortune and harm, but true love DEFINITELY does not wish for the beloved's freedom....TRUE love always wishes that the beloved return, no matter how much time has passed. True love never wishes for the beloved's happiness, not with another as Neruda communicated in this poem, this will always evoke a painfully deep sadness. I have a very hard time believing that someone would wish that a TRUE love would be free and happy with another than with him/herself
one afternoon I've found and read this poem (or maybe it found me,'cause I'm not a poetry fan).I was in a happy relationship back than, but still those verses made me cry."I never want to fill this kind of pain" - went trought my mind in that moment,went trought my heart while looking at my lover. Wish didn't came true. I will only say that it fealt just the way Neruda wrote. And from time to time, when the memories fill my heart with saddness, I open my little white book and reed the poem...in those starry nights Neruda is my only frend,the only one who understands...
thank you,Pablo
What a wonderful write. This is By far one of my Favorite Poems, If Not My Favorite all Together. There is never a time that I read this piece and do not get tears in my eyes. My favorite line is "We, of that time, are no longer the same." Oh My what a powerful Line. It Hold in it the very essence of the entire piece. Bravo Mr. Neruda.
I dint understand the poem first time i read..than i go through again n again and i find the poem is interesting..neruda get the attention of thousand of readers..he is simply the best poet ever!
..this poem tells us how hard to forget a person who was once the most important person in your life..this poem is really good for it tells a story that really happens in the real life..
forgetting is a very long process..and what hurts most is that you'll not totally forget something for there will always be things that will remind you of the past..
Omg, Maria when I read your comment I started crying!! That is soo sad that you might have found your one true love and you were married to someone else!!! But, maybe God does have a bigger plan for you. Hope everything workds out!
tonight i can write
The poem is a powerful depiction of tragic feeling,memories, pains,worries about the departed love. Neruda expounds the agony of failed love,remembers the beautiful days which he used to spend with his beautiful beloved.He also seems to convey that his beloved used to love him occationaly, as if she waz knowing that their relation is not going to remain for ever. the lone "love is so short and forgetting isso long" is highly filled with the sad feelings, the poet feels after seperating from his beloved. the line is fully universal as it is not possible to forget any dear one.
...the poem is very amazing. for each and everyone can relate...
for losing someone is not that easy...
then the "girl" does not refer only for the opposite sex..it could also mean to your love ones tha is very close to you..
but then the focus is on the opposite sex
thisis really nice..