Wedding Reading Ideas: Sonnet 17 by Pablo Neruda

posted inWedding Readings, Weddings

If you're looking for some unique wedding reading ideas for your big day, our new series of beautiful readings is going to help you personalise your ceremony to the two of you. Today's wedding reading has been chosen by Dawn of Dawn Rees Ceremonies who is a humanist celebrant from Norfolk.

Her ceremony style is inventive, quirky and definitely not run-of-the-mill. She works with couples to find a unique ceremony style that's perfect for them.

Her choice, Sonnet 17 by Pablo Neruda is part of his 'One Hundred Love Sonnets' collection which describes the love he feels and how it surpasses any previous definition of what love could be... perfect for your wedding day. We take a look at this beautiful romantic poem.

Sonnet 17 by Pablo Neruda

I don’t love you as if you were a rose of salt, topaz,

or arrow of carnations that propagate fire;

I love you as one loves certain obscure things,

secretly, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that doesn’t bloom but carries

the light of those flowers, hidden, within itself,

and thanks to your love the tight aroma that arose

from the earth lives dimly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,

I love you directly without problems or pride:

I love you like this because I don’t know any other way to love,

except in this form in which I am not, nor are you,

so close that your hand upon my chest is mine,

so close that your eyes close with my dreams.

If you liked this wedding reading and are looking for more ideas you may also like Invisible Kisses by Lemn Sessay or you can find more about Pablo Neruda here.