Pablo Nerudapoet and statesman

1904 - 1973Nobel Prize for Literature, 1971

C h i l e

Sonnet XCIIfrom 100 Love Sonnets

to Matilde Urrutia

If some time your breast pauses, if something stops movingstops burning through your veins,

If the voice in your mouth escapes without becoming word,If your hands forget to fly, and fall asleep,

Matilde, my love, leave your lips half-open:Because that final kiss should linger with me,

It should stay still, forever, in your mouth,So that it goes with me, too, into my death,

If will die kissing your crazy cold mouth,If will die kissing your crazy cold mouth,Caressing the lost fruit buds of your body,Caressing the lost fruit buds of your body,

Looking for the light of your closed eyes.

Matilde, my love, leave your lips half-open:Because that final kissshould linger with me,

It should stay still, forever, in your mouth,So that it goes with me, too, into my death,

And so when the earth receives our embraceWe will go blended in a single death, forever living the eternity of a kiss.

Matilde, my love……

Matilde, my love……

Matilde………

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Created by Anne Marie Weiss-Armush and Ricardo Deambrosi Neruda@dfwinternational.org maxim2004@advancedsl.com.ar