Pablo Neruda's most famous lines
The top 3 according to 7 votes from people: Love is so short, forgetting is so long. · I no longer love her, that's certain, but how I loved her. · My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.. (Updated Apr 14, 2026.)
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.
Automatically translated (original in Español). See the original
Top 10
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1
Love is so short, forgetting is so long.
Poem 20 (1924).
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2
I no longer love her, that's certain, but how I loved her.
Poem 20 in Twenty Love Poems (1924).
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3
My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.
Poem 20 in Twenty Love Poems (1924).
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4
I want to do with you what spring does with the cherry trees.
Poem 14 in Twenty Love Poems (1924).
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5
Rise up and be born with me, brother.
«The Heights of Macchu Picchu», in Canto General (1950).
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6
Naked, you are as simple as one of your hands.
Sonnet XXVII of One Hundred Love Sonnets (1959).
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7
Your breast is enough for my heart, / and my wings for your freedom.
Poem 12 in Twenty Love Poems (1924).
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8
Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
First line of Poem 20 in Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair (1924).
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9
I like you when you're quiet, because it's as though you're absent.
Poem 15 in Twenty Love Poems (1924).
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10
I confess that I have lived.
Title of his memoirs, published in 1974, after his death.
Candidates
They don't make it into the top 10… yet. Vote for them to move them up.
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11
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved, / in secret, between the shadow and the soul.
Sonnet XVII of One Hundred Love Sonnets (1959).
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Comments (3)
«Me gustas cuando callas» la usé para una carta de amor a los 16 jaja
Neruda en la Isla Negra, hay que ir.
«Es tan corto el amor, y es tan largo el olvido», no hay verso más cierto.