Inspired

So a few weeks ago I went to Ohio for my college orientation, and while at the bookstore I picked up a poetry book called, "Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair," by Pablo Neruda and translated by W. S. Merwin. Personally, love is the one thing that inspires me to write... at least my better pieces. The flow of Neruda's work is really captivating; each line enraptures. Even though it's only 20 poems, I still have not yet finished it, not even half. I like to spend my time digesting every word, interpreting and understanding before preceding. So here I give you one of his poems:

So That You Will Hear Me
By Pablo Neruda

So that you will hear me
my words
sometimes grow thin
as the tracks of the gulls on the beaches.

Necklace, drunken bell
for your hands smooth as grapes.

And I watch my words from a long way off.
They are more yours than mine.
They climb on my old suffering like ivy.

It climbs the same way on damp walls.
You are to blame for this cruel sport.
They are fleeing from my dark lair.
You fill everything, you fill everything.

Before you they peopled the solitude that you occupy,
and they are more used to my sadness than you are.

Now I want them to say what I want to say to you
to make you hear as I want you to hear me.

The wind of anguish still hauls on them as usual.
Sometimes hurricanes of dreams still knock them over.
You listen to other voices in my painful voice.

Lament of old mouths, blood of old supplications.
Love me, companion. Don't forsake me. Follow me.
Follow me, companion, on this wave of anguish.

But my words become stained with your love.
You occupy everything, you occupy everything.

I am making them into an endless necklace
for your white hands, smooth as grapes.