I don't want to go on being a root in the dark, vacillating, stretched out, shivering with sleep, downward, in the soaked guts of the earth, absorbing and thinking, eating each day.
Interpretation
The quote reflects a desire for growth and enlightenment beyond a mundane existence.
In this quote, Pablo Neruda expresses a yearning to escape the confines of a stagnant and unfulfilled life, symbolized by being a root in the dark. He highlights the struggle of existing in an unchanging state, steeped in darkness and lethargy, while longing for a brighter, more meaningful experience that transcends mere survival.
In practice
This quote could be shared during a motivational speech about personal development.
Perhaps this war will pass like the others which divided us leaving us dead, killing us along with the killers but the shame of this time puts its burning fingers to our faces. Who will erase the ruthlessness hidden in innocent blood?
I want to see the thirst inside the syllables I want to touch the fire in the sound: I want to feel the darkness of the cry. I want words as rough as virgin rocks.” - Verb.
Only do not forget, if I wake up crying it's only because in my dream I'm a lost child hunting through the leaves of the night for your hands.
And here am I, budding among the ruins with only sorrow to bite on, as if weeping were a seed and I the earth's only furrow.
Once more I am the silent one who came out of the distance wrapped in cold rain and bells: I owe to earth's pure death the will to sprout.
I learned about life from life itself, love I learned in a single kiss and could teach no one anything except that I have lived with something in common among men.
We have to realize that we are as deeply afraid to live and to love as we are to die.
I found myself in a sea in which the waves of joy and sorrow were clashing against each other.
Poverty entails fear and stress and sometimes depression. It meets a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts that is something on which to pride yourself but poverty itself is romanticized by fools.
But life is just a party, and parties weren't meant to last.
Make sure you live,' she said. 'As decent as you can. I know you'll make mistakes, but sometimes you're meant to, okay?
No one escapes from a war. No one. Not even the survivors. You accept things that would appall you at any other time because life has temporarily lost all meaning.
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