Welcome back to the Daily Poem, a podcast from Goldberry Studios.

I'm Sean Johnson, and today is Wednesday, February 14th, 2004, which means it's Valentine's Day.

And if you have been hunting for the perfect love poem, look no further, because today's poem is a real doozy.

If you've been paying attention and you're listening in real time,

you may have noticed that all of the poems this week have been love poems of one kind or another,

but this is one of the purest of contemporary love poems.

It's by the great Latin sensualist Pablo Neruda,

and it is Sonnet 17 from his cycle of 100 sonnets.

I'll read it once, offer a few comments, and then read it a second time.

This is Naruto's Sonnet 17, translated by Mark Eisner.

I don't love you as if you were a rose of salt, topaz or arrow of carnations that propagate fire.

I love you as one loves certain obscure things secretly between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that doesn't bloom but carries the light of those flowers hidden within itself. And thanks to your love, the tight aroma that arose from the earth lives dimly

in my body. I love you without knowing how, or when, or from

where. I love you directly without problems or pride. I love you like this because I don't know

any other way to love, except in this form in which I am not, nor are you, so close that

your hand upon my chest is mine, so close that your eyes close with my dreams. There is a lot to be said for finding a love poem that can perfectly express how the lover feels about the beloved,

what value the lover places upon the beloved,

the just right,

not just, the ideal metaphor or simile,

and yet there's something almost truer about a poem that can express the way that romantic love is

utterly inexpressible.

...