Carnal Apple (Neruda poem)

Carnal Apple, Woman Filled, Burning Moon


Carnal apple, Woman filled, burning moon,
dark smell of seaweed, crush of mud and light,
what secret knowledge is clasped between
your pillars?
What primal night does Man touch with his
senses?
Ay, Love is a journey through waters and
stars,
through suffocating air, sharp tempests of
grain:
Love is a war of lightning,
and two bodies ruined by a single sweetness.
Kiss by kiss I cover your tiny infinity,
your margins, your rivers, your diminutive
villages,
and a genital fire, transformed by delight,
slips through the narrow channels of b lo od
to precipitate a nocturnal carnation,
to be, and be nothing but light in the dark.

Pablo Neruda