I want your ears still to hear the wind, I want you to sniff the sea's aroma that we loved together, to continue to walk on the sand we walk on

When I die, I want your hands on my eyes: 

I want the light and the wheat of your beloved hands 

to pass their freshness over me once more: 

I want to feel the softness that changed my destiny. 

 

I want you to live while I wait for you, asleep. 

I want your ears still to hear the wind, I want you 

to sniff the sea's aroma that we loved together, 

to continue to walk on the sand we walk on. 

 

I want what I love to continue to live, 

and you whom I love and sang above everything else 

to continue to flourish, full-flowered: 

 

so that you can reach everything my love directs you to 

so that my shadow can travel along in your hair, 

so that everything can learn the reason for my song. 

 

[Pablo Neruda {1904-1973} 'LXXXIX', from One Hundred Love Sonnets = Cien sonetos de amor]