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Tonight I can write


Here's another translation of Neruda's "Tonight I can write" :

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

Write, for example, "The night is starry
and the stars are blue and shiver in the distance."

The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.

Through nights like this one I held her in my arms.
I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.

She loved me, sometimes I loved her too.
How could one not have loved her great still eyes.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her.

To hear the immense night, still more immense without her.
And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture.

What does it matter that my love could not keep her.
The night is starry and she is not with me.

This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the distance.
My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

My sight tries to find her as though to bring her closer.
My heart looks for her, and she is not with me.

The same night whitening the same trees.
We, of that night, are no longer the same.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but how I loved her.
My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.

Another's. She will be another's. As she was before my kisses. Her voice, her bright body. Her infinite eyes.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but maybe I love her.
Love is so short, forgetting is so long.

Because through nights like this one I held her in my arms
my soul is not satisified it has lost her.

Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer
and these the last verses that I write for her.
 

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Login to find out (October 30, 2005 at 9:18am)
Unrelated side note- Whenever any of you get a chance, please read 'No God but God' by Reza Aslan and Tariq Ramadan's 'Western Muslims and the future of Islam'... :)
 
Login to find out (October 18, 2005 at 5:11pm)
I think this translation is better than the one I posted.
 
Login to find out (September 11, 2005 at 10:10pm)
I just found this village. This is one of my favorite poems- love is so short, forgetting is so long. I am envious of anyone who has loved like this.
 
Login to find out (September 2, 2005 at 7:19pm)
The same night whitening the same trees.
We, of that night, are no longer the same.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but how I loved her.
My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.

beautiful!!!!!!!!!! I feel the pain and saddness from the words. It is beautiful each line is so moving and touching!
 
Login to find out (July 3, 2005 at 11:15pm)
I guess writing it down helped :) What I wrote is what I understood from reading this particular translation. The original spanish may carry a different flavor altogether. Thanks IdStar :)
 
Login to find out (July 3, 2005 at 12:24am)
Malithegreat - sounds like you already understood the meaning of the line about the voice finding the wind. You say you're "trying to understand". I think you got it.
 
Login to find out (July 2, 2005 at 11:59pm)
I like the line "the night wind revolves in the sky and whispers", and I'm trying to understand "my voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing". my voice searched for a wind that could convey my voice to her, not simply reaching her hearing but touching her as well. each faculty attempts to reach out to the one that is loved. perhaps I should start capitalizing the first letters in these sentences.
 
Login to find out (July 2, 2005 at 12:59pm)
Walikumassalam wr wb Ali, very kind of u but I dont date:)!
 
Login to find out (July 2, 2005 at 11:55am)
Love the lines ,?I no longer love her, that's certain, but maybe I love her.
Love is so short, forgetting is so long."
 
Login to find out (July 1, 2005 at 11:32am)
Let's bring this one back, too.
 
Login to find out (June 21, 2005 at 12:57am)
This is the first Neruda poem I was introduced to. Ironic, that she who introduced me before we were one, is now the subject; while Neruda's thoughts, words and story had become my own. Poetry can be so prophetic.
 
Login to find out (June 15, 2005 at 12:40am)
i agree with you on the reading though it was pretty flat... book learnin' isn't really his strong point, but he's mastered the unsettling, borderline-psychotic, intense stare... oh, wait this village isn't about andy garcia is it. my apologies. note to self: must start new village...
 
Login to find out (June 15, 2005 at 12:36am)
hey! easy on mr.garcia, he's my future husband. (he doesn't know it yet... but i think we'll be very happy together.)
 
Login to find out (June 14, 2005 at 10:19am)
Andy Garcia reads this poem on the Il Postino soundtrack very, very poorly. Someone needs to teach him that rushing through words doesn't make for a very pleasing listening experience. I hate Andy Garcia.
 
Login to find out (June 13, 2005 at 5:01am)
Just wanted to bring this to the top again. ;)
 
Login to find out (June 10, 2005 at 7:41pm)
i have 60's print of this entirely in SPanish, if i find it ill post it in SPanish on here
 
Login to find out (June 10, 2005 at 7:38pm)
I agree with you Hayatti....the words of this translation are much more resonant!!
 
Login to find out (June 10, 2005 at 7:26pm)
How could one not have loved her great still eyes.
 
Login to find out (June 6, 2005 at 8:30pm)
i like this translation better... wish i knew spanish. has anyone read the original?
 
Login to find out (June 6, 2005 at 1:23pm)
Listen to Atif Aslam's "Bheegi Yaadein"- it reminds me of Neruda www.bollyfm.net