Pablo Neruda by Kenneth Lyen Today we celebrate the centenary of Pablo Neruda’s birth (12 July 1904). He is my favourite poet and the inspiration of my screenplay "Love Poetry" which was made into a film for television and shown in Singapore in April this year. I consider him the greatest love poet of the 20th century. What I love most about his poetry is his intense passion tinged with melancholy. Here are a couple of his poems: Love Because of you, in gardens of blossoming flowers I ache from the perfumes of spring. I have forgotten your face, I no longer remember your hands; how did your lips feel on mine? Because of you, I love the white statues drowsing in the parks, the white statues that have neither voice nor sight. *I have forgotten your voice, your happy voice; I have forgotten your eyes. Like a flower to its perfume, I am bound to my vague memory of you. I live with pain that is like a wound; if you touch me, you will do me irreparable harm. Your caresses enfold me, like climbing vines on melancholy walls. I have forgotten your love, yet I seem to glimpse you in every window. Because of you, the heady perfumes of summer pain me; because of you, I again seek out the signs that precipitate desires: shooting stars, falling objects. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Walking Around I happen to be tired of being a man I happen to enter tailor shops and movie houses withered, impenetrable, like a felt swan navigating in a water of sources and ashes. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ For an account of his life, please turn to: http://chronicle.com/free/v50/i43/43b01301.htm