I built up these lumber piles of love, and with fourteen boards each I built little houses, so that your eyes, which I adore and sing to, might live in them. Now that I have declared the foundations of my love, I surrender this century to you: wooden sonnets that rise only because you gave them life.
Interpretation
The quote expresses deep love and devotion through the metaphor of building houses for one's beloved, showcasing how love creates a living, nurturing space.
In this quote, Pablo Neruda uses the imagery of building with wood to symbolize the effort and care put into love. He describes constructing small houses from 'lumber piles of love', suggesting that his feelings have a tangible quality, and these little homes serve as manifestations of his adoration. The reference to 'wooden sonnets' highlights the artistic nature of love, as he combines the physical creation with poetic expression, illustrating that true love nurtures and brings life to both the lover and the beloved.
In practice
This quote can be used in a wedding speech to express the depth of commitment.
Perhaps this war will pass like the others which divided us leaving us dead, killing us along with the killers but the shame of this time puts its burning fingers to our faces. Who will erase the ruthlessness hidden in innocent blood?
I want to see the thirst inside the syllables I want to touch the fire in the sound: I want to feel the darkness of the cry. I want words as rough as virgin rocks.” - Verb.
Only do not forget, if I wake up crying it's only because in my dream I'm a lost child hunting through the leaves of the night for your hands.
And here am I, budding among the ruins with only sorrow to bite on, as if weeping were a seed and I the earth's only furrow.
Once more I am the silent one who came out of the distance wrapped in cold rain and bells: I owe to earth's pure death the will to sprout.
I learned about life from life itself, love I learned in a single kiss and could teach no one anything except that I have lived with something in common among men.
A soul cannot live without loving. It must have something to love, for it was created to love.
The loss of love is the loss of all rights, even though one had them all.
I want to be your stranger across a crowded room.
Through love scraps of copper are turned to gold.
Love is the most durable power in the world.
And the flavor of Pippa's kiss--bittersweet and strange--stayed with me all the way back uptown, swaying and sleepy as I sailed home on the bus, melting with sorrow and loveliness, a starry ache that lifted me up above the windswept city like a kite: my head in the rainclouds, my heart in the sky.
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