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Pablo Neruda's Love Sonnet 9: A Translation

9
Al golpe de la ola contra la piedra indócil
la claridad estalla y establece su rosa
y el círculo del mar se reduce a un racimo,
a una sola gota de sal azul que cae.

Oh radiante magnolia desatada en la espuma,
magnética viajera cuya muerte florece
y eternamente vuelve a ser y a no ser nada:
sal rota, deslumbrante movimiento marino.

Juntos tú y yo, amor mío, sellamos el silencio,
mientras destruye el mar sus constantes estatuas
y derrumba sus torres de arrebato y blancura,

porque en la trama de estos tejidos invisibles
del agua desbocada, de la incesante arena,
sostenemos la única y acosada ternura.

9
There where the wavebreak dashes the inflexible rocks,
clarity blooms and fixes its rose,
and the great round of the sea is shrunk to a few flowers,
to a sole drop of salt, blue and falling.  

Oh, magnolia detached and radiant in the spray,
magnetic voyager whose death fluorishes
and eternally turns back to be and not to be:
broken salt, dazzling motion of the sea.

Together you and I, my love, seal the silence
while the sea crumbles its constant statues
and brings down its towers of surprising white,

for in the weave of these invisible threads
of water disgorged and incessant sand,
we sustain the single sought-out tenderness.

Translation: Terence Clarke