La Reina by Pablo Neruda

Yo te he nombrado reina.
Hay más altas que tú, más altas.
Hay más puras que tú, más puras.
Hay más bellas que tú, hay más bellas.
Pero tú eres la reina.

Cuando vas por las calles
nadie te reconoce.
Nadie ve tu corona de cristal, nadie mira
la alfombra de oro rojo
que pisas donde pasas,
la alfombra que no existe.

Y cuando asomas
suenan todos los ríos
en mi cuerpo, sacuden
el cielo las campanas,
y un himno llena el mundo.

Sólo tú y yo,
sólo tú y yo, amor mío,
lo escuchamos.
– Pable Neruda

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Translation

The Queen
I have named you queen.
There are taller than you, taller.
There are purer than you, purer.
There are lovelier than you, lovelier.
But you are the queen.

When you go through the streets
No one recognizes you.
No one sees your crystal crown, no one looks
At the carpet of red gold
That you tread as you pass,
The nonexistent carpet.

And when you appear
All the rivers sound
In my body, bells
Shake the sky,
And a hymn fills the world.

Only you and I,
Only you and I, my love,
Listen to me.
– Pablo Neruda

When I was a little girl, I mispronounced my name (as children often do) and my Spanish speaking grandfather decided I was calling myself Reina. I was calling myself, “the queen.” The name stuck for a very long time.

I was looking up another Pablo Neruda poem and saw La Reina. It made me think of all the poems and the love-inspired words of fiction I’ve written. It made me think of the inspiration for those words. I wish I could be written into the lines of his life – his words, like these.