I do not love you

Love is as amazing as it is mysterious.  There are no words that can truly describe it, and  its meaning is as different as those who experience it.

Pablo Neruda, the Nobel prize winning Chilean Poet, was one of many men and women who attempted to encapsulate eros.  His Love Sonnet 17 absolutely gets it right.  One of my favorites.

This one goes out to my partner on the anniversary of our wedding.

Love Sonnet 17, Pablo Neruda

XVII (I do not love you…)

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 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.