Tonight I Can Write - Summary and analysis

 

Tonight I Can Write

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

Write, for example, 'The night is starry and the stars are blue and shiver in the distance.'

The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.

Through nights like this one I held her in my arms.
I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.

She loved me, sometimes I loved her too.
How could one not have loved her great still eyes.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her.

To hear the immense night, still more immense without her.
And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture.

What does it matter that my love could not keep her.
The night is starry and she is not with me.

This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the distance.
My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

My sight tries to find her as though to bring her closer.
My heart looks for her, and she is not with me.

The same night whitening the same trees.
We, of that time, are no longer the same.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but how I loved her.
My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.

Another's. She will be another's. As she was before my kisses.
Her voice, her bright body. Her infinite eyes.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but maybe I love her.
Love is so short, forgetting is so long.

Because through nights like this one I held her in my arms
my soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer
and these the last verses that I write for her.

Translation by W. S. Merwin

 

 

The speaker sets the tone of sorrow and heartbreak. He now has the emotional distance or permission to articulate his pain through poetry. He gives an example of the kind of poetic line he can now write. The distant, trembling stars mirror his inner fragility and loneliness. Nature seems alive and musical, yet its song is tinged with sadness, perhaps echoing the speaker’s internal grief. "Tonight I can write the saddest lines." The repetition underscores the intensity of his grief, as if he’s convincing himself of his right to mourn through words.

 

A declaration of love mixed with uncertainty. The use of “sometimes” suggests the love was not always mutual or consistent. The memory is real, this very kind of night reminds him of their intimacy, enhancing his sense of loss. The vast sky under which he loved her is now a backdrop to absence. The repetition of affection highlights the intensity of his former love. "She loved me, sometimes I loved her too." A reversal of an earlier line, suggesting that their love was cyclical and perhaps imbalanced, each loving more at different times. "How could one not have loved her great still eyes." A rhetorical question that captures her beauty and the emotional stillness or depth he saw in her eyes.

 

 "To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her." He differentiates between intellectual realization and emotional acceptance. The loss is both factual and deeply felt. The vastness of the night reflects his emptiness. Without her, even nature becomes more alien and desolate.

 

"And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture." His words are gentle yet heavy with emotion—like dew falling silently, nourishing yet sorrowful. He questions the significance of his efforts. His love, no matter how genuine, was not enough to hold on to her. "The night is starry and she is not with me." A haunting juxtaposition: the beauty of the night contrasts with the pain of her absence. He affirms the finality of his grief. The repetition of “in the distance” emphasizes isolation and the irrelevance of the outside world to his pain. Though his mind may accept the loss, his soul refuses to find peace. The grief lingers deeply. He looks for her instinctively, as if his longing can summon her presence. He personalizes his heart as an entity seeking her, only to realize again her absence.

 

"The same night whitening the same trees." Nature remains unchanged, only his internal world has shifted. The night and trees are the same, but he is no longer the same man. Their past is vanished. Time has transformed them; the love that once was is gone. "I no longer love her, that's certain, but how I loved her." He claims detachment, yet immediately contradicts it by reliving the passion.

 

"Another's. She will be another's. As she was before my kisses." She belongs to another man now, just as she once belonged to herself or others before he loved her. This realization sharpens his sorrow. He recalls her physical presence with reverence and yearning - her voice, body, and eyes haunt his memory.

 

 

"Love is so short, forgetting is so long." A famous, devastating line. It encapsulates the entire poem—the brevity of passion versus the enduring ache of loss. The memory is rooted in the setting. This very night mirrors the past, reviving the pain. "Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer" He hopes this will be the end of his suffering caused by her—the final act of emotional release.  "and these the last verses that I write for her."  He resolves to end his poetic mourning. But the very act of writing suggests he is still caught in the sorrow he wishes to end.