Diane

“This time is difficult, wait for me:
we will live it out vividly.
Give me your small hand:
we will rise and suffer,
we will feel and rejoice.

We are once more the pair
who lived in bristling places,
in harsh nests in the rock.
This time is difficult, wait for me
with a basket, with a shovel,
with your shoes and your clothes.

Now we need each other
not only for the carnations' sake,
not only to look for honey:
we need our hands
to wash with and to make fire,
and so let our difficult time
stand up to infinity
with four hands and four eyes.”
― Pablo Neruda

“Take bread away from me, if you wish,
take air away, but
do not take from me your laughter.

Do not take away the rose,
the lance flower that you pluck,
the water that suddenly
bursts forth in joy,
the sudden wave
of silver born in you.

My struggle is harsh and I come back
with eyes tired
at times from having seen
the unchanging earth,
but when your laughter enters
it rises to the sky seeking me
and it opens for me all
the doors of life.

My love, in the darkest
hour your laughter
opens, and if suddenly
you see my blood staining
the stones of the street,
laugh, because your laughter
will be for my hands
like a fresh sword.

Next to the sea in the autumn,
your laughter must raise
its foamy cascade,
and in the spring, love,
I want your laughter like
the flower I was waiting for,
the blue flower, the rose
of my echoing country.

Laugh at the night,
at the day, at the moon,
laugh at the twisted
streets of the island,
laugh at this clumsy
fool who loves you,
but when I open
my eyes and close them,
when my steps go,
when my steps return,
deny me bread, air,
light, spring,
but never your laughter. ”
― Pablo Neruda

“so I wait for you like a lonely house
till you will see me again and live in me.
Till then my windows ache.”
― Pablo Neruda, 100 Love Sonnets