Stones of the Sky XXV

by Pablo Neruda

(translated from Spanish by James Nolan)

When you touch topaz
topaz touches you:
a gentle warmth awakes
as if wine in the grape
came alive.
Even before birth, the clear wine
inside a stone
seeks routes, demands words,
hands over its mysterious food,
and shares a kiss with human skin:
the smooth touch
of stone and human
inflames a quick cross-pollination
which later returns to be what it was:
flesh and stone:
  considerable rivals.