--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: The days aren't discarded or collected…" description: "\"The days aren't discarded or collected, they are bees that burned with sweetness or maddened the sting: the struggle continues, the journeys go and com..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e30/pablo-neruda-435_action_the-days-aren-t-discarded-or-collected-t_2321810.jpg" --- # The days aren't discarded or collected, they are bees that… ![“The days aren't discarded or collected, they are bees that burned with sweetness or maddened the sting: the struggle continues, the journeys go and come between honey and pain. No, the net of years doesn't unweave: there is no net. They don't fall drop by drop from a river: there is no river…” quote by Pablo Neruda](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e30/pablo-neruda-435_action_the-days-aren-t-discarded-or-collected-t_2321810.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e30/pablo-neruda-435_action_the-days-aren-t-discarded-or-collected-t_2321810.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e30/pablo-neruda-435_action_the-days-aren-t-discarded-or-collected-t_2321810.jpg) > “The days aren't discarded or collected, they are bees that burned with sweetness or maddened the sting: the struggle continues, the journeys go and come between honey and pain. No, the net of years doesn't unweave: there is no net. They don't fall drop by drop from a river: there is no river. Sleep doesn't divide life into halves, or action, or silence, or honor: life is like a stone, a single motion, a lonesome bonfire reflected on the leaves, an arrow, only one, slow or swift, a metal that climbs or descends burning in your bones.” [Pablo Neruda](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pablo-neruda/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. A lyrical meditation on time, memory, and life's bittersweet moments, using metaphorical images of bees, honey, and fire to convey enduring struggle and beauty. **In simple terms:** Life’s moments are sweet and painful, like bees and fire. Key Takeaway Embrace both joy and pain as part of life's journey. Themes time memory dualities Mood reflective melancholic Type philosophical poetic When to use this quote - personal reflection - creative writing - therapeutic journaling Key Concepts metaphor existential reflection poetic imagery Questions to Reflect On - How do you find balance between sweetness and sting? - What does the “stone” symbolize for you? A Different Perspective Metaphors may be too abstract for practical application. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Action](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/action/) [Arrows](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/arrows/) [Bees](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bees/) [Bones](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bones/) [Bonfire](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bonfire/) [Burned](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/burned/) [Burning](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/burning/) [Climbs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/climbs/) [Days Aren](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/days-aren-244145/) [Descends Burning](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/descends-burning-5553204/) [Discarded](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/discarded/) [Divide Life](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/divide-life-299385/) [Fall](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/fall/) [Half](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/half/) [Honey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/honey/) [Honor](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/honor/) [Journey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/journey/) [Life](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/life/) [Life is](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/life-is/) [Life is like](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/life-is-like/) [Like Stone](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/like-stone-414644/) [Lonesome](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/lonesome/) [Metals](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/metals/) [Pain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/pain/) [Rivers](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/rivers/) [Silence](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/silence/) [Sleep](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/sleep/) [Stones](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/stones/) [Struggle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/struggle/) [Sweetness](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/sweetness/) [Years](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/years/) ## Related quotes > [I have good days and bad days, but they aren't much different.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/eric-gagne/i-have-good-days-and-bad-days-but-they-aren-t-much-different/) [Eric Gagne](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/eric-gagne/) > [Life is not all a bowl of cherries. There are days when you aren't going to feel up to par. 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I was a man…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pablo-neruda/i-remember-only-a-day-that-was-perhaps-never-intended-for-me-it-was/) [Pablo Neruda](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pablo-neruda/) > [“We had, as men, time So our thirst could slowly be satisfied, the ancestral longing to enumerate things and sum them up, to render…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pablo-neruda/we-had-as-men-time-so-our-thirst-could-slowly-be-satisfied-the/) [Pablo Neruda](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pablo-neruda/) > [We bear the sole, relentless tenderness.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pablo-neruda/we-bear-the-sole-relentless-tenderness/) [Pablo Neruda](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pablo-neruda/) > [I don't know who it is who lives or dies, who rests or wakes, but it is your heart that distributes all the graces…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pablo-neruda/i-don-t-know-who-it-is-who-lives-or-dies-who-rests-or-wakes-but-it-is/) [Pablo Neruda](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pablo-neruda/) > [“Body of a woman, white hills, white thighs, you look like a world, lying in surrender. 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