# Pablo Neruda's most famous lines

The Neruda verses recited all over the world, from Twenty Love Poems (1924) to Canto General, each with its book. Beware of «It is forbidden…» and «You start dying slowly», which circulate under his name and are not his.

- 7 votes · 11 items
- Apr 14, 2026 · Felipe T.
- https://even.best/en/l/1046/pablo-neruda-s-most-famous-lines

## Top 10

1. **Love is so short, forgetting is so long.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Poem 20 (1924).
2. **I no longer love her, that's certain, but how I loved her.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Poem 20 in Twenty Love Poems (1924).
3. **My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Poem 20 in Twenty Love Poems (1924).
4. **I want to do with you what spring does with the cherry trees.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Poem 14 in Twenty Love Poems (1924).
5. **Rise up and be born with me, brother.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — «The Heights of Macchu Picchu», in Canto General (1950).
6. **Naked, you are as simple as one of your hands.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Sonnet XXVII of One Hundred Love Sonnets (1959).
7. **Your breast is enough for my heart, / and my wings for your freedom.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Poem 12 in Twenty Love Poems (1924).
8. **Tonight I can write the saddest lines.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — First line of Poem 20 in Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair (1924).
9. **I like you when you're quiet, because it's as though you're absent.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Poem 15 in Twenty Love Poems (1924).
10. **I confess that I have lived.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Title of his memoirs, published in 1974, after his death.
11. **I love you as certain dark things are to be loved, / in secret, between the shadow and the soul.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Sonnet XVII of One Hundred Love Sonnets (1959).

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.