Para que Tu Me Oigas (So That You Will Hear Me)

Pablo Neruda is one of my favorite poets, so I wanted to share one of his poems. It was written in spanish & then later translated into English, so I'm writing the spanish version first with the English translation underneath it. Hope you enjoy the genius of Mr Neruda as mush as I do...

Para que Tu Me Oigas

Para que tu me oigas
mis palabras
se adelgazan a veces
como las huellas de las gaviotas en las playas.

Collar, cascabel ebrio
para tus manos suaves como las uvas.

Y las miro lejanas mis palabras.
Mas que mias son tuyas.
Van trepando en mi viejo dolor como las yedras.

Ellas trepan asi por las paredes humedas.
Eres tula culpable de este juego sangriento.
Ellas estan huyendo de mi guarida oscura.
Todo lo llenas tu, todo lo llenas.

Antes que tu poblaron la soledad que ocupas,
y estan acostumbradas mas que tu a mi tristeza

Ahora quiero que digan lo que quiero decirte
para que tu me oigas como quiero que me oigas.

So That You Will Hear Me

So that you will hear me
my words
sometimes grow thin
as the tracks of the gulls on the beaches.

Necklace, drunken bell
for your hands to smooth as grapes.

And I watch my words from a long way off.
They are more yours than mine.
They climb on my old suffering like ivy.

It climbs the same way on damp walls.
You are to blame for this cruel sport.
They are fleeing from my dark lair.
You fill everything, you fill everything.

Before you they peopled the solitude that you occupy,
and they are more used to my sadness than you are.

Now I want them to say what I want to say to you
to make you hear as I want you to hear me.

-Pablo Neruda, from "Twenty Love Poems and A Song of Despair"