OfficiantScript

Wedding reading

Sonnet XVII — "I do not love you as if you were salt-rose"

Pablo Neruda

“Sonnet XVII — "I do not love you as if you were salt-rose"” by Pablo Neruda is a poem read at a wedding ceremony. It takes about 50 seconds read aloud, usually by a guest reader. We do not reprint the words here — the note below says why, and what to bring instead.

Why the words are not printed here

Still in copyright, and the English is a translator’s work in its own right. Choose the translation the couple prefer and print that one — they differ more than people expect.

Pieces still in copyright are listed by title and author only — we name them and tell you where to get them, but we do not reproduce the words. Public-domain text is printed in your script in full.

Where it comes from

Sonnet XVII belongs to Cien sonetos de amor, which Editorial Losada published in Spanish in 1959.

What it says

Neruda refuses the usual comparisons. He does not love this person the way people love a jewel or a showy flower; he loves them the way some hidden, dark things are loved, privately, between the shadow and the soul. He compares his love to a plant that never flowers but holds the light of flowers inside it. He cannot say how or when or where it began; he only loves, directly, without pride and without complication. The last lines describe a closeness so complete that the boundary between the two of them disappears, down to a hand and a dream.

Ask which translation. They are not interchangeable. Read at a wedding ceremony. Themes: secret love · so close that your hand is mine · Spanish · a bilingual ceremony.

Who it suits

Bilingual or Latin American families, who can hear it in Spanish and English back to back, and couples whose love is quiet and private rather than showy. It reads beautifully at an evening or candlelit ceremony. Its intensity can feel too intimate for a large formal wedding where most guests barely know the couple.

Where it goes in the ceremony

Usually the main reading before the vows. In a bilingual ceremony, have one reader give the Spanish and a second give the English straight after, or one reader do both with a pause between.

Reading it aloud

Allow about 50 seconds at a ceremony pace of about 130 words a minute, from the reader’s first word to their last.

Questions about reading it aloud

How long does “Sonnet XVII — "I do not love you as if you were salt-rose"” take to read aloud?

“Sonnet XVII — "I do not love you as if you were salt-rose"” takes about 50 seconds read aloud at a ceremony pace, which is slower than conversation — roughly 130 words a minute. That is the figure the run-sheet uses when it works out the timing for the whole service.

Who usually reads “Sonnet XVII — "I do not love you as if you were salt-rose"”?

Usually a guest reader rather than the officiant. “Sonnet XVII — "I do not love you as if you were salt-rose"” runs about 50 seconds, which is a manageable amount to hand to a friend or family member. Give them a printed copy of their own, in a size they can read without their glasses, and tell them where to stand and how you will introduce them.

Can “Sonnet XVII — "I do not love you as if you were salt-rose"” be printed in a ceremony script?

Not by us. Still in copyright, and the English is a translator’s work in its own right. Choose the translation the couple prefer and print that one — they differ more than people expect.

A reading is two minutes of the hour.

The rest is the welcome, the vows, the ring exchange, the pronouncement — and the timing that holds them together. Answer some questions about the couple and get the whole ceremony, written out, with this reading in its place.

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