As we mention over in "Form and Meter," it's a little tricky to talk about a how a poem is put together when it's written in translation. By the same token, the sounds of Neruda's original Spanish version are pretty different from the sounds of William O'Daly's English take. In both cases, though, the conversational tone of this poem (remember that it's written in free verse form) means that we're not in for a ton of technical cartwheels here. Instead, we get a generally straightforward presentation of some utterly mind-bending questions.
We do get some sound patterns, though, and it's worth pointing out that similar techniques pop up in both Spanish and English versions. Check out Neruda's original stanza:
Hay algo más triste en el mundo
que un tren inmóvil en la lluvia? (7-8)
Now, don't panic—there's no need to know Spanish to hear the sound here. All you need to know is that the I sound in Spanish generally comes across like the long E sound in English. So, we have three long E sounds in "triste" (sad), "inmóvil" (standing), and "lluvia" (rain) in just two short lines. That close repetition of the vowel sound is what's known in the poetry biz as assonance .
We get a similar technique in the English translation, only this time it's not a vowel sound that gets repeated; it's a consonant: S. In fact, the S sound pops up eleven times in just eight lines, from "rose" (1) through to "standing" (8). That, friends, is what's known as consonance.
Other than that, the sounds of this conversational poem take a backseat to the content—in both the Spanish original and English translation. As true poets, though, it looks like neither Neruda nor O'Daly could totally turn off their ear for the sounds of their respective language.