The Sonnet that I will always Love

i LOVE this sonnet by Pablo Neruda. I first read an excerpt from this sonnet while reading a newspaper featuring a certain married couple who placed an excerpt (the last two stanzas, to be specific) on their wedding invitations. I loved it so much and found it so sweet so i copied it and kept it for future use, haha! :-D All i knew then was that Pablo was a Chilean poet. Then when i got to watch the movie Patch Adams, Robin Williams who plays Patch, also read this sonnet to Monica Potter in the movie. Read it guys...you'll fall in love with it as well :-)

sonnet 17

I don't love you as if you were the salt-rose, topaz
or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:
I love you as certain dark things are loved,
secretly, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that doesn't bloom and carries
hidden within itself the light of those flowers,
and thanks to your love, darkly in my body
lives the dense fragrance that rises from the earth.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,
I love you simply, without problems or pride:
I love you in this way because I don't know any other way of loving

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

-- Pablo Neruda