An Island Never Cries

Don’t go far off, not even for a day, because —
because — I don’t know how to say it: a day is long 
and I will be waiting for you, as in an empty station 
when the trains are parked off somewhere else, asleep. 

Don’t leave me, even for an hour, because 
then the little drops of anguish will all run together, 
the smoke that roams looking for a home will drift 
into me, choking my lost heart. 

Oh, may your silhouette never dissolve on the beach; 
may your eyelids never flutter into the empty distance. 
Don’t leave me for a second, my dearest, 

because in that moment you’ll have gone so far 
I’ll wander mazily over all the earth, asking, 
Will you come back? Will you leave me here, dying?

— Pablo Neruda, Don’t Go Far Off