Luxury 4 Star Gold B&B, 10 minutes south of Thurso Tel: 01847 841391
Pablo Neruda’s Suite of Poems Las Piedras del Cielo - “Stones of the Sky”
Visible at Bay of Sannick for around one hour a day at low tide.
The walk can be quite treacherous, a steep grass bank down the cliff to the bay, walk through mounds of seaweed. Climb over barnacle covered slippery rock to the row upon row of red sandstone reef stretching out to sea. The engravings wrap around an entire reef, on flat stone, swirling around to the higher rockface.
It is thought the engraving was completed in 2004 to celebrate Pablo Neruda’s 100th
anniversary of his birth, a celebration of his work took place in Edinburgh at that time.
Sonnet beneath the sea at Bay of Sannick
Sonnet XVII - Las Piedras del Cielo
Bay of Sannick, between John O’Groats and Duncansby Head
“Stones of the sky”
I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz, or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off. I love you as certain dark things are to be loved, in secret, between the shadow and the soul. I love you as the plant that never blooms but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers; thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance, risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body. I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride; so I love you because I know no other way, than this: where I does not exist, nor you, so close that your hand on my chest is my hand, so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.Pablo Neruda (1904 – 1973)
