by Pablo Neruda （Translated by W. S. Merwin）

    The memory of you emerges from the night around me.

    The river mingles¹ its stubborn lament² with the sea.

    Deserted³ like the wharves⁴ at dawn.

    It is the hour of departure， oh deserted one！

    Cold flower heads are raining over my heart.

    Oh pit of debris⁵， fierce cave of the shipwrecked.

    In you the wars and the flights accumulated.

    From you the wings of the song birds rose.

    You swallowed everything， like distance.

    Like the sea， like time. In you everything sank！

    It was the happy hour of assault and the kiss.

    The hour of the spell that blazed like a lighthouse.

    Pilot's dread⁶， fury of a blind diver，

    turbulent drunkenness of love， in you everything sank！

    In the childhood of mist my soul， winged and wounded.

    Lost discoverer， in you everything sank！

    You girdled sorrow， you clung to desire，

    sadness stunned⁷ you， in you everything sank！

    I made the wall of shadow draw back，

    beyond desire and act， I walked on.

    Oh flesh， my own flesh， woman whom I loved and lost，

    I summon you in the moist hour， I raise my song to you.

    Like a jar you housed the infinite tenderness，

    and the infinite oblivion shattered you like a jar.

    There was the black solitude⁸ of the islands，

    and there， woman of love， your arms took me in.

    There were thirst and hunger， and you were the fruit.

    There were grief and the ruins， and you were the miracle.

    Ah woman， I do not know how you could contain me

    in the earth of your soul， in the cross of your arms！

    How terrible and brief was my desire of you！

    How difficult and drunken， how tensed and avid⁹.

    Cemetery¹⁰ of kisses， there is still fire in your tombs，

    still the fruited boughs¹¹ burn， pecked at by birds.

    Oh the bitten mouth， oh the kissed limbs，

    oh the hungering teeth， oh the entwined bodies.

    Oh the mad coupling of hope and force

    in which we merged¹² and despaired.

    And the tenderness， light as water and as flour.

    And the word scarcely begun on the lips.

    This was my destiny and in it was the voyage of my longing¹³，

    and in it my longing fell， in you everything sank！

    Oh pit of debris， everything fell into you，

    what sorrow did you not express， in what sorrow are you not drowned！

    From billow to billow you still called and sang.

    Standing¹⁴ like a sailor in the prow¹⁵ of a vessel¹⁶.

    You still flowered in songs， you still broke in currents.

    Oh pit of debris， open and bitter well.

    Pale blind diver， luckless slinger¹⁷，

    lost discoverer， in you everything sank！

    It is the hour of departure， the hard cold hour

    which the night fastens to all the timetables.

    The rustling¹⁸ belt of the sea girdles the shore.

    Cold stars heave up， black birds migrate.

    Deserted like the wharves at dawn.

    Only the tremulous shadow twists in my hands.

    Oh farther than everything. Oh farther than everything.

    It is the hour of departure. Oh abandoned one.

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