Archive for Hard Love

“I Do Not Love You Except Because I Love You” by Pablo Neruda

{ November 3, 2008 @ 3:32 am } · { Hard Love, Life Lessons }
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I Do Not Love You Except Because I Love You by Pablo Neruda

I do not love you except because I love you;
I go from loving to not loving you,
From waiting to not waiting for you
My heart moves from cold to fire.

I love you only because it’s you the one I love;
I hate you deeply, and hating you
Bend to you, and the measure of my changing love for you
Is that I do not see you but love you blindly.

Maybe January light will consume
My heart with its cruel
Ray, stealing my key to true calm.

In this part of the story I am the one who
Dies, the only one, and I will die of love because I love you,
Because I love you, Love, in fire and blood.

I really liked this poem. I love this poet and I find he is so passionate in his love poems. I think this poem is relatable for people who have loved and lost. Also for the one’s stuck in the middle waiting to figure out where they stand in the relationship.

In this particular poem, the poet is confused on how he feels. The poet describes “My heart moves from cold to fire.” I think this language is great and I like how instead of using the word warm or burns he uses “fire.” He also wants to love yet he wants to let go “I go from loving to not loving you, From waiting to not waiting for you.” I think people can relate to this part of the poem.

My favorite lines in the poem are “In this part of the story I am the one who
Dies, the only one, and I will die of love because I love you, Because I love you, Love, in fire and blood.” I think it is so Pablo Neruda to end a poem like this. He ends it with passion and really leaves an emotion in your heart when you are done reading it. I think here is where the speaker, or poet himself, comes to realization that he really does love this person and feels like he will die from the pain that love can bring.

“Indeed, Indeed I Cannot Tell” A poem of “a pure impartial hate.”

{ October 14, 2008 @ 4:00 pm } · { Hard Love }
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Indeed, Indeed I Cannot Tell

by Henry David Thoreau
 

 

Indeed indeed, I cannot tell,
Though I ponder on it well,
Which were easier to state,
All my love or all my hate.
Surely, surely, thou wilt trust me
When I say thou dost disgust me.
O, I hate thee with a hate
That would fain annihilate;
Yet sometimes against my will,
My dear friend, I love thee still.
It were treason to our love,
And a sin to God above,
One iota to abate
Of a pure impartial hate.

I like this poem because I can relate to it. I went through a messy relationship and this poem sums up how I feel towards this person at this point in time. Maybe not true hate because I don’t “hate” anyone. The poem is literally about the speaker going back and forth between the feelings of love and hate toward a person.  The speaker is unsure of which one he is leaning towards. It is difficult for the speaker to say. Obviously he has gone through something similar to what I and many others have been through. I really like the rhythm; it is very simple and constant and has a beat. It is a simple rhythm that follows this simple idea of “Do I love you still or do I hate you?”

My favorite lines in the poem are “One iota to abate-Of a pure impartial hate.” What the speaker is saying that a small amount of this feeling of borderline hatred, will lessen gradually.

I think the most powerful lines are “Surely, surely, thou wilt trust me-When I say thou dost disgust me.-O, I hate thee with a hate-That would fain annihilate;” The speaker is saying believe me when I say you sicken me, I hate you so much that this hate, with a smile on my face or happiness behind it, would destroy you. I didn’t put it this way only until I really studied the language used. I noticed it is very straight to the heart for the reader it was intended for.

“Don’t Go Far Off” by Pablo Neruda…A poem about needing a loved one

{ September 15, 2008 @ 7:06 pm } · { Love }
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Don’t go far off, not even for a day, because –
because — I don’t know how to say it: a day is long
and I will be waiting for you, as in an empty station
when the trains are parked off somewhere else, asleep.

Don’t leave me, even for an hour, because
then the little drops of anguish will all run together,
the smoke that roams looking for a home will drift
into me, choking my lost heart.

Oh, may your silhouette never dissolve on the beach;
may your eyelids never flutter into the empty distance.
Don’t leave me for a second, my dearest,

because in that moment you’ll have gone so far
I’ll wander mazily over all the earth, asking,
Will you come back? Will you leave me here, dying?

    I really liked this poem because once again it is about love. It is basically saying that the speaker needs his loved one to survive. Although it is very moving and deep, I feel it is too needy, and not how I feel at all. I guess the speaker really needs his loved one by his side. I can relate to it even though it is too over the top. I once felt the need for someone. The feeling of losing someone can make you think life can’t go on without them. But it can and will.

   My favorite line in the poem is “Oh, may your silhouette never dissolve on the beach;
may your eyelids never flutter into the empty distance.” I like this line beacause I can picture his woman’s body and face. I also love the way he words it especially  “may your eyelids never flutter into the empty distance.”

    I also like the line “the smoke that roams looking for a home will drift
into me, choking my lost heart.” I love the metaphor he uses. It makes the feeling of being choked up from love so much deeper and moving.

 

“If You Forget Me” a heart wrenching poem

{ September 9, 2008 @ 4:49 am } · { Hard Love }
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If You Forget Me

By Pablo Neruda

I want you to know
one thing.

You know how this is:
if I look
at the crystal moon, at the red branch
of the slow autumn at my window,
if I touch
near the fire
the impalpable ash
or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists,
aromas, light, metals,
were little boats
that sail
toward those isles of yours that wait for me.

Well, now,
if little by little you stop loving me
I shall stop loving you little by little.

If suddenly
you forget me
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.

If you think it long and mad,
the wind of banners
that passes through my life,
and you decide
to leave me at the shore
of the heart where I have roots,
remember
that on that day,
at that hour,
I shall lift my arms
and my roots will set off
to seek another land.

But
if each day,
each hour,
you feel that you are destined for me
with implacable sweetness,
if each day a flower
climbs up to your lips to seek me,
ah my love, ah my own,
in me all that fire is repeated,
in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,
my love feeds on your love, beloved,
and as long as you live it will be in your arms
without leaving mine.

This poem was very relatable to me as well as very moving. I was in a relationship for four years and discovered it was impossible to maintain at that point. I actually have lost all contacts with this person. At one point in time this poem was how I felt while going through the sticky breakup. I think that this poem is easily relatable to many others who have been in love and then suddenly lost it. However Pablo Neruda describes these feelings and thoughts so beautifully.

The poem has a nice flow to it. I like that it doesn’t need to rhyme to have this flow either. It sounds almost like a love song or even a letter to a former and astray lover. The beginning is very direct “I want you to know one thing. You know how this is.” It gives the reader a definite idea of not only what the poem is about but who this poem is to. I also love the metaphors in the poem, referring his love as roots in the soil.

The poet basically is saying not only does everything he encounter reminds him of his lover, but also whatever his lovers choice is he will follow. What ever happens with your feelings, I will feel the same way is the basic point of the poem. I think this perfectly describes how I felt at one point in time. A feeling of if you love me forever, I will love you forever, if you forget me, I have already forgotten you. My favorite part of the poem is “If you think it long and mad, the wind of banners
that passes through my life, and you decide to leave me at the shore of the heart where I have roots, remember that on that day, at that hour, I shall lift my arms and my roots will set off to seek another land.” I think that this is my favorite part because it was exactly what happened to me.