I don't want to go on being a root in the dark, vacillating, stretched out, shivering with sleep, downward, in the soaked guts of the earth, absorbing and thinking, eating each day.
Interpretation
The quote reflects a desire for growth and enlightenment beyond a mundane existence.
In this quote, Pablo Neruda expresses a yearning to escape the confines of a stagnant and unfulfilled life, symbolized by being a root in the dark. He highlights the struggle of existing in an unchanging state, steeped in darkness and lethargy, while longing for a brighter, more meaningful experience that transcends mere survival.
In practice
This quote could be shared during a motivational speech about personal development.
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.
Better to try all things and find all empty, than to try nothing and leave your life a blank.
If you don't want to live a life where you go to a job every day just so you can enjoy your weekends and get two weeks of vacation every year, then don't do it.
My mind was bursting with depression and anguish. I muttered imprecations and murmuring as I passed along. I was full of loathing and abhorrence of life, and all that life carries in its train.
What's a man's age? He must hurry more, that's all; Cram in a day, what his youth took a year to hold.
…tomorrow was her birthday, and she was thinking how fast the years went by, how old she was getting, and how little she seemed to have accomplished. Almost twenty-five and nothing to show for it.
He ate a pear. It was a hard one. It fought back against his grinding teeth. It snapped in juicy protest.
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