Veinte Poemas de Amor y una Canción Desesperada (Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair) (1924)

trans. William S. Merwin [Penguin Classics, 1993, ISBN 0-140-18648-4]

• ¿Quién escribe tu nombre con letras de humo entre las estrellas del sur?
  Ah déjame recordarte cómo eras entonces, cuando aún no existías.
  • Who writes your name in letters of smoke among the stars of the south?
    Oh let me remember you as you were before you existed.
  • "Every Day You Play" (Juegas Todos los Días), XIV, p. 35.

• Quiero hacer contigo lo que la primavera hace con los cerezos.
  • I want to do with you what spring does with cherry trees.
  • "Every Day You Play" (Juegas Todos las Días), XIV, p. 35.

• Me gustas cuando callas porque estás como ausente,
  y me oyes desde lejos, y mi voz no te toca.
  • I like for you to be still: it is as though you were absent,
    and you hear me from far away and my voice does not touch you.
  • "I Like for You to be Still" (Me Gustas Cuando Callas), p. 37.

• Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche.
  • Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
  • "Tonight I Can Write" (Puedo Escribir), XX, p. 49.

• Es tan corto el amor y tan largo el olvido.
  • Love is so short and forgetting is so long.
  • "Tonight I Can Write" (Puedo Escribir), XX, p. 51.

Residencia en la Tierra (Residence on Earth) (1933)

trans. William Merwin in Selected Poems by Pablo Neruda [Houghton Mifflin, 1990, ISBN 0-395-54418-1]

• Estoy solo entre materias desvencijadas,
  la lluvia cae sobre mí, y se me parece,
  se me parece con su desvarío,solitaria en el mundo muerto,
  rechazada al caer, y sin forma obstinada.
  • I am alone with rickety materials,
    the rain falls on me, and it is like me,
    it is like me in its raving, alone in the dead world,
    repulsed as it falls, and with no persistent form.
  • Débil del Alba (Weak with the Dawn or The Dawn's Debility), Residencia I (Residence I), I, stanza 5.
  • Alternate translation by Donald D. Walsh:
    I am alone among rickety substances,
    the rain falls upon me and it seems like me,
    like me with its madness, alone in the dead world,
    rejected as it falls, and without persistent shape.

• Enterrado junto al cocotero hallarás más tarde
  el cuchillo que escodí allí por temor de que me mataras,
  y ahora repentinamente quisiera oler su acero de cocina
  acostumbrado al peso de tu mano y al brillo de tu pie:
  bajo la humedad de la tierra, entre las sordas raíces,
  de los lenguajes humanos el pobre sólo sabría tu nombre,
  y la espesa tierra no comprende tu nombre
  hecho de impenetrables y substancias divinas.
  • Later on you will find buried near the coconut tree
    the knife which I hid there for fear you would kill me,
    and now suddenly I would be glad to smell its kitchen steel
    used to the weight of your hand, the shine of your foot:
    under the dampness of the ground, among the deaf roots,
    in all the languages of the men only the poor will know your name,
    and the dense earth does not understand your name
    made of impenetrable divine substances.
  • Tango del Viudo (The Widower's Tango), Residencia I (Residence I), III, stanza 3.
  • Alternate translation by Donald D. Walsh:
    Buried next to the coconut tree you will later find
    the knife that I hid there for fear that you would kill me,
    and now suddenly I should like to smell its kitchen steel
    accustomed to the weight of your hand and the shine of your foot:
    under the moisture of the earth, among the deaf roots,
    of all human labguages the poor thing would know only your name,
    and the thick earth does not understand your name
    made of impenetrable and divine substances.

• No quiero para mí tantas desgracias.
  No quiero continuar de raíz y de tumba,
  de subterráneo solo, de bodega con muertos
  ateridos, muriéndome de pena.
  • I do not want to be the inheritor of so many misfortunes.
    I do not want to continue as a root and as a tomb,
    as a solitary tunnel, as a cellar full of corpses,
    stiff with cold, dying with pain.
  • Walking Around, Residencia II (Residence II), II, stanza 4-5.
  • Alternate translation by Donald D. Walsh:
    I do not want for myself so many misfortunes.
    I do not want to continue as root and tomb,
    just underground, a vault with corpses
    stiff with cold, dying of distress.

• Si me preguntáis en dónde he estado
  debo decir "Sucede."
  Debo de hablar del suelo que oscurecen las piedras,
  del río que durando se destruye:
  no sé sino las cosas que los pájaros pierden,
  el mar dejado atrás, o mi hermana llorando.
  ¿Por qué tantas regiones, por qué un día
  se junta con un día? ¿Por qué una negra noche
  se acumula en la boca? ¿Por qué muertos?
  • If you should ask me where I've been all this time
    I have to say "Things happen."
    I have to dwell on stones darkening the earth,
    on the river ruined in its own duration:
    I know nothing save things the birds have lost,
    the sea I left behind, or my sister crying.
    Why this abundance of places? Why does day lock
    with day? Why the dark night swilling round
    in our mouths? And why the dead?
  • No Hay Olvido (Sonata) (There's No Forgetting (Sonata) or There is No Oblivion (Sonata)), Residencia II (Residence II), VI, stanza 1.
  • Alternate translation by Donald D. Walsh:
    If you ask me where I have been
    I must say "It so happens."
    I must speak of the ground darkened by stones,
    of the river that enduring is destroyed:
    I know only the things that the birds lose,
    the sea left behind, or my sister weeping.
    Why so many regions, why does a day
    join a day? Why does a black night
    gather in the mouth? Why dead people?

• Preguntaréis: ¿Y dónde están las lilas?
  ¿Y la metafísica cubierta de amapolas?
  ¿Y la lluvia que a menudo golpeaba
  sus palabras llenándolas
  de agujeros y pájaros?
  • You are going to ask: and where are the lilacs?
    and the poppy-petalled metaphysics?
    and the rain repeatedly spattering
    its words and drilling them full
    of apertures and birds.
  • Explico Algunos Cosas (I'm Explaining a Few Things or I Explain a Few Things), Tercera Residencia (Third Residence), IV, stanza 1.
  • Alternate translation by Donald D. Walsh:
    You will ask: And where are the lilacs?
    And the metaphysical blanket of poppies?
    And the rain that often struck
    your words filling them
    with holes and birds?

• Preguntaréis ¿por qué su poesía
  no nos habla del sueño, de las hojas,
  de los grandes volcanes de su país natal?

  Venid a ver la sangre por las calles,
  venid a ver
  la sangre por las calles,
  venid a ver la sangre
  por las calles!

  • And you will ask: why doesn't his poetry
    speak of dreams and leaves
    and the great volcanoes of his native land?

    Come and see the blood in the streets.
    Come and see
    the bloods in the streets.
    Come and see the blood
    in the streets!

  • Explico Algunos Cosas (I'm Explaining a Few Things or I Explain a Few Things), Tercera Residencia (Third Residence), IV, stanza 9.
  • Alternate translation by Donald D. Walsh:
    You will ask: why does your poetry
    not speak to us of of sleep, of the leaves,
    of the great volcanoes of your native land?

    Come and se the blood in the streets,
    come and see
    the blood in the streets,
    come and see the blood
    in the streets!