Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Wedding Reading: Pablo Neruda Edition

I really want to include a Pablo Neruda poem in our wedding ceremony. His love poetry is so beautiful and awe inspiring. I've been reading his work non-stop and have two in consideration at this point.

Option 1:

Sonnet LXIX

Maybe nothingness is to be without your presence,
without you moving, slicing the noon
like a blue flower, without you walking
later through the fog and the cobbles,

without the light you carry in your hand,
golden, which maybe others will not see,
which maybe no one knew was growing
like the red beginnings of a rose.

In short, without your presence: without your coming
suddenly, incitingly, to know my life,
gust of a rosebush, wheat of wind:

since then I am because you are,
since then you are, I am, we are,
and through love I will be, you will be, we'll be.

Option 2:

Sonnet 17
I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way

in which there is no I or you
so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand
so intimate that when you fall asleep it is my eyes that close


What do you think? What are some unique wedding readings that you are including in your ceremony?

1 comment:

Katie said...

So pretty! Those are some good choices. Hearing the name Pablo Neruda always makes me think of the show "How I Met Your Mother," since Ted's favorite poet is Pablo! ;)

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