"Odas Elementales (Elementary Odes) isn't the only book I have written," said the renown Chilean poet-diplomat Pablo Neruda, as portrayed by French actor Phillippe Noiret in the 1996 film Il Postino: The Postman. 

Eager to obtain romantic advice from "The Poet of Love,"  Massimo Troisi, in the title rôle of Mario Ruoppolo, had initiated timid proposals -- "stiff as a post," "nailed like a spear," "stiller than a porcelain cat" -- which brought on Neruda's impatience. "No," he says to Mario. "Immobilized like the castle on a chess board." 

Pablo Neruda then complains, "It's unfair of you to shower me with similes and metaphors."

The postman is puzzled. "Don Pablo?"

"Metaphors."

"What are those?"