I Do Not Love You Except Because I Love You

I Do Not Love You Except Because I Love You

By Pablo Neruda

Stanza 4

Last Few Years

"In this part of the story I am the one who

Dies, the only one, and I will die of love because I love you,

Because I love you, Love, in fire and blood."

Early Years

• He lived in different European countries during this time. Wrote several different poems relating to Chile
• Returned to Chile in 1952, and won several awards, including the International Peace Prize in 1950, the Lenin Peace Prize and the Stalin Peace Prize in 1953, and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971.
• Neruda died just two years after receiving his Nobel Prize on September 23, 1973, in Santiago, Chile of cancer.

Stanza 2

Only he suffers from the heartbreak he is going through. He accepts this because he truly loves her.

He accepts the pain that comes with falling in love because he truly loves her passionately.

I Do Not Love You Except

Because I Love You

• Born July 12, 1904, in Parral, Chile
• Ricardo Eliecer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto
• Mother died shortly after his birth. Father remarried years later.
• At age 13, began writing in local newspaper.
• Father did not support his writing career
• Took up pen name of Pablo Neruda, in memory of his favorite poet Jan Neruda
• Studied at the University of Chile in Santiago
• Veinte Poemas de Amor y Una Cancion Desesperada one of his best-known and most translated works of this time period

"I love you only because it's you the one I love;

I hate you deeply, and hating you

Bend to you, and the measure of my changing love for you

Is that I do not see you but love you blindly."

This person is the only one he loves. He knows he can't change for someone he hates, but he wants to change to show her how much she means to him. He excepts for who she is.

I do not love you except because I love you;

I go from loving to not loving you,

From waiting to not waiting for you

My heart moves from cold to fire.

I love you only because it's you the one I love;

I hate you deeply, and hating you

Bend to you, and the measure of my changing love for you

Is that I do not see you but love you blindly.

Maybe January light will consume

My heart with its cruel

Ray, stealing my key to true calm.

In this part of the story I am the one who

Dies, the only one, and I will die of love because I love you,

Because I love you, Love, in fire and blood.

Prime Time

Literary Devices

• Political career had him traveling the world
• Through travels, he married twice and had one daughter
• The Spanish Civil War and the murder of close friend, García Lorca, made him join the Republican Party
• Strong communist, attracted a lot of controversy with his poems "Canto a Stalingrado", "Nuevo canto de amor a Stalingrado”, and "Saludo a Batista".
• Joined Communist Party of Chile in 1945, but 3 years later the Communist Party was under siege, and Neruda fled the country with his family.

Stanza 1

"I do not love you except because I love you;

I go from loving to not loving you,

From waiting to not waiting for you

My heart moves from cold to fire."

Neruda's Style

Imagery:

"My heart moves from cold to fire."

• Used to compare how his emotions vary from hate to love.

Symbolism:

"Because I love you, Love, in fire and blood."

• Fire and blood represent passion. So he loves her passionately.

Repetition:

"...I love you..."

• Shows how she is constantly on his mind and in his thoughts.

• surrealist poems and proses
• history and politics are major topics
• erotically-charged love poems

Love-hate relationship established in first line. The speaker continues to fall in love when he doesn’t want to. His love is hopeless but he continues to wait for it. He's confused as to how he feels about this person, so his feelings vary from one moment to another.

Literary Devices (Cont.)

About the Poem

• Sonnet (LXVI)
• No rhyme scheme (in English)
• Possibly inspired by his love life between both wives
• Hopeless Love

Personification:

"Maybe January light will consume..."

• Perhaps a new beginning will help me forget.

Paradox:

"I do not love you except because I love you."

• Love and hate can coexist, but they may confuse the individual who feels them.

No Te Quiero Sino Porque Te Quiero

Stanza 3

"Maybe January light will consume

My heart with its cruel

Ray, stealing my key to true calm."

NO TE QUIERO sino porque te quiero

y de quererte a no quererte llego

y de esperarte cuando no te espero

pasa mi corazón del frío al fuego.

Te quiero sólo porque a ti te quiero,

te odio sin fin, y odiándote te ruego,

y la medida de mi amor viajero

es no verte y amarte como un ciego.

Tal vez consumirá la luz de enero,

su rayo cruel, mi corazón entero,

robándome la llave del sosiego.

En esta historia sólo yo me muero

y moriré de amor porque te quiero,

porque te quiero, amor, a sangre y fuego.

"January Light" is seen as a new year. He hopes that hopefully he will be able to forget about her in a new year (beginning), and be able to recover his calm mind.