Poetry Day - I do not love you as if ...

So I thought today I post a poem by Pablo Neruda, the Chilean poet, since he was mentioned a couple of posts ago. I haven't actually read a lot of his poetry, because much of it is not so helpful when you're single (I don't need to be filling my mind with it, if you know what I mean), and because poetry written in other languages often frustrates me as the translations can be so different I don't know which is truest. So here is Neruda's Sonnet XVII from here, but if you read it here you will see that it is quite something else (eg, I think a salt-rose, that being a rose that is very tolerant of salt conditions, is something different altogether to a rose of salt, and "dimly" conjures up something quite different to "darkly" etc).

Sonnet XVII

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,

or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.

I love you as certain dark obscure things are to be loved,

in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms

but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;

thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,

risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.

I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;

so I love you because I know no other way

than this: where I does not exist, nor you,

so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,

so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

Pablo Neruda

Picture of a salt rose from Wikipedia.