Excerpt of text:

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No te amo como si fueras rosa de sal,
topacio o flecha de claveles que propagan el fuego:

te amo como se aman ciertas cosas oscuras,

secretamente, entre la sombra y el alma.

-Pablo Neruda

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I do not love you as though you were salt-rose,

topaz, or carnation arrows that spread fire:
I love you as certain dark things are loved,

secretly, between the shadow and soul.

-Translation by Varshini Narayanan

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In the seventeenth sonnet of his Cien Sonetos de Amor, Pablo Neruda writes of an intimate love that transforms the two individuals into one existence. Soneto XVII is a nuanced and layered setting of the eponymous love poem with lush stasis interspersed with driven motion. "Tan cerca que se cierran tus ojos con mi sueño": we are "so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep"

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