Terence Clarke Novelist, journalist, screenwriter, filmmaker

Pablo Neruda's Love Sonnet 70: A Translation

July 2, 2008, 1:05 pm

70
Tal vez herido voy sin ir sangriento
por uno de los rayos de tu vida
y a media selva me detiene el agua:
la lluvia que se cae con su cielo.

Entonces toco el corazón llovido:
allí sé que tus ojos penetraron
por la región extensa de mi duelo
y un susurro de sombra surge solo:

Quién es? Quién es? Pero no tuvo nombre
la hoja o el agua oscura que palpita
a media selva, sorda, en el camino,

y así, amor mío, supe que fui herido
y nadie hablaba allí sino la sombra,
la noche errante, el beso de la lluvia.

70
Perhaps, though not bloodied, I go wounded
down one of the lines of your life
where, far into the jungle, the water detains me:
rain that falls with the sky itself.

Then I touch the rain-drenched heart.
I know that, there, your eyes penetrated
to the vast region of my grief,
and a single sigh surged from the shadow,

Who's there?  Who's there?  But the leaf
had no name for it, nor the dark water quivering
deep in the jungle, deaf on the jungle path.

And so, my love, I knew I was wounded
and that no one spoke there except the shadow,
the errant night and the rain's kiss.

Translation: Terence Clarke