Book Description

This collection of Neruda's most essential poems will prove indispensable. Selected by a team of poets and prominent Neruda scholars in both Chile and the U.S., this is a definitive selection that draws from the entire breadth and width of Neruda's various styles and themes. An impressive group of translators that includes Alistair Reid, Stephen Mitchell, Robert Hass, Stephen Kessler and Jack Hirschman, have come together to revisit or completely retranslate the poems; and a handful of previously untranslated works are included as well. This selection sets the standard for a general, high--quality introduction to Neruda's complete oeuvre.

Customer Reviews (15)

what's the big deal?
This would be my first introduction to Pablo Neruda, and I must say I'm a bit disappointed. Not that Neruda isn't a great poet, the Nobel Prize and critical acclaim prove the contrary, but perhaps the translation could use some more work.

I picked this copy up noticing the name of Robert Hass', the translator and author of the Essential Haiku, on which he did a great job. Unfortunately, Eisner is the editor of the majority of the poems. The analogy to Eisner's translation would be like what Zondervan did to the bible in their NIV. It's not a bad translation, but it's moderned up a bit. I would have appreciated a more King James-like translation of Neruda's poems as I could infer a lot of missed nuances that appear to be in the original Spanish on the opposite page. A lot of the translations lack the depth and texture of what a great poet should have, and sometimes it feels like I'm reading a different poet altogether.

For instance, a line "Hermano, hermano!" is translated as "Hermano, hermano!" in the English, though it could have plainly been have translated as "Brother, brother!" considering the second "hermano" is not capitalized. Perhaps this was Neruda's original intent,but there is no way to tell as there are no footnotes.

Poetry is about texture, a poet's voice, and brilliance in how the artist uses his words to paint; this translation doesn't do enough to convey the voice of Neruda, but merely makes it accessible to new readers of not only Neruda, but also poetry.

A New Translation
"I became saturated with his poetry and began to translate his poems. Although there were many beautiful existing translations, many others did not flow as I felt they should and I often had interpretive differences with them." ~ Mark Eisner, translator

"The Essential Neruda Selected Poems" is the best translation I've read so far. The words are alive with beauty in a way that feels authentic to the heart. You can immerse yourself in the poems and emerge with a sense of wonder.

"Leaning into the evenings I throw my sad nets
to your ocean eyes."

Mark Eisner has captured the soul of Pablo Neruda's art and perhaps even enhanced the creative majesty of each poem. At times the poems can make you feel a little breathless as if you have happened upon a new discovery or secret revelation.

"And the air came in with orange-blossom fingers
over all those asleep:
a thousand years of air, months, weeks of air,
of blue wind, of iron cordillera,
that were like soft hurricanes of footsteps
polishing the lonely boundary of the stone."

The imagery is at times so vivid, as if you were transported to each scene. Pictures flash across your mind and you can almost catch the scent of the ocean or see the colors vivid and pure. Angels and death dance through the poems with equal ease and at times the words are heavenly or earthy and dark.

"Full woman, carnal apple, hot moon,
thick smell of seaweed, crushed mud and light,
what obscure clarity opens between your columns?
What ancient night does man touch with his senses?"

If you are new to the poems of Pablo Neruda then this would be an excellent place to start. The poems present many facets of the poet unlike other books that simply reveal his romantic nature. While I seem to enjoy his love poems best, I can say that this experience gives a more wide-ranging portrait of Pablo Neruda.

~The Rebecca Review

The Essential Neruda
Neruda has given us some of the most incredibly poignant poetry of our time. Do yourself a favor; buy this collection.

Love on your mind?Read TWENTY LOVE POEMS: 15 --- "I like it when you're quiet."



"I like it when you're quiet.It's as if you weren't here now, and you heard me from a distance, and my voice couldn't reach you.

It's as if your eyes had flown away from you, as if your mouth were closed because I leaned to kiss you."

The title of the collection says it all "The Essential Neruda."

Gracias a la Vida de Pablo!
M.Eisner has compiled an elegant presentation of the profound Pablo's soulful echo. The translations are smooth and majestic. He has clearly discovered the light radiating from Neruda's heart. Thank you for this lovely red poppy edition!

Lovely Collection of Poetry
This beautiful collection of poetry contains both English & Spanish versions of Neruda's poetry. It contains great breadth & depth at the core and encompasses the vastness of Neruda's work - love, politics, everyday life, landscape. This is a GREAT gift book! ... Read more

Book Description
The Nobel Prize–winning poet’s most popular work

When it appeared in 1924, this work launched into the international spotlight a young and unknown poet whose writings would ignite a generation. W. S. Merwin’s incomparable translation faces the original Spanish text. Now in a black-spine Classics edition, this book stands as an essential collection that continues to inspire lovers and poets around the world. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (39)

Seasons of Love
"Clasping my arms like a climbing plant
the leaves garnered your voice, that was slow and at peace.
Bonfire of awe in which my thirst was burning.
Sweet blue hyacinth twisted over my soul."
(from "I Remember You As You Were")

After watching "The Postman" I became interested in purchasing my first book of Pablo Neruda's poems. Needless to say I went into the experience with very high expectations.

The poems are awash with nature images and much less erotic than I expected. Most seem more romantic and at times captivating. They do demand your full attention as they present vivid images one after the other and reading the poems more slowly has many advantages. At times I was surprised by their complexity.

"The moon turns its clockwork dream.
The biggest stars look at me with your eyes.
And as I love you, the pines in the wind
want to sing your name with their leaves of wire."
(from "Here I Love You")

Throughout the book there are illustrations by Pablo Picasso. They don't really seem to mirror the meanings in the poems and yet they seem to express the language of the body.

I expected the poems to be less veiled in mystery and more infused with images of erotic love. Still these poems can be enjoyed for their passionate intimacy and natural sensuality.

~The Rebecca Review

Wonderful!
This book was very beneficial as I translated some of the poems myself. It allowed me to compare differences in the two translations and choose which was most accurate.

Love poems for all of us
Our Spanish is weak, mine much weaker than hers, but the language speaks, the tone of the language sings, as we sit on a beach and share these beatiful poems, in words we understand, and sounds we listen to.

One of my favorite writers
In this duel language edition, the voice is soft, sincere, and refreshing. His language borders on a passion that seems to rouse the senses like skydiving, or waiting for first rain. I recommend this book and all his books to the poetry reader.

the most romantic book of love poems ever written
perhaps this is the most romantic and most beautiful book of love poems ever written. every word, every stanza is so easily read, so quickly understood, like an arrow to the heard. give this gift to your lover and they will never forget it. ... Read more

Amazon.com
If you've ever wished for a fresh and imaginative way of saying "Ilove you" to your beloved, peruse Chilean poet Pablo Neruda's 100 LoveSonnets. This intimate bilingual collection overflows with the master poet'ssignature sensuality and inventive imagery. Written in the 1950s for hischerished wife Matilde Urrutia, Neruda's earnest adoration leaps off the page inpoem after poem: "Your heart is a clay toy shaped like a dove";"Your kisses are clusters of fruit, fresh with dew." Thanks totranslator StephenTapscott, Neruda's dreamy images carry over vividly from the Spanish anddance in the mind for days after they're read.

Neruda pays only loose tribute to the sonnet by employing a 14-line structurefor each poem. As he says, his sonnets are made of wood, rather than the"silver, or crystal, or cannonfire" of a more refined sonnet. Neruda'shumility is apparent as he refers again and again to the natural landscape ofIsla Negra (the Pacific island where he and his wife lived) to describe hissimple dedication to Matilde: "...I am like a scorched rock / that suddenlysings when you are near, because it drinks / the water you carry from theforest, in your voice."

Journeying from the erotic celebration of the body to the spiritual depths ofeternal union, 100 Love Sonnets shows why "two happy lovers make onebread" and "waking, they leave one sun empty in their bed."Book Description

"The...expressions of erotic feeling and human affection convey a warmth and immediacy that is direct, delicate, subtle, and strong by turns...."

—ALA Booklist

Customer Reviews (51)

Awesome!
It is a masterpiece of latin-american literature. It is a new experience into the depths of the human heart. It has unique metaphors and similies that picture the most passionate and simple type of love!

When you cannot find the words to express how you are feel!
Without a doubt, truly one of the best love sonnets. Huge fan of Pablo Neruda and thrilled to have a copy of this book.

Honorable
Pablo Neruda is possible one of the truest masters of the written word.His poetry, ranging from affairs of the heart to affairs of state are always relevant and somehow touch you.Although the translation of Sonnet 17 done in this book isn't my favorite, the overall experience of the book is one that generally leaves you with the impression that Pablo Neruda was a man who felt things and felt them with a depth we can only hope to know... someday.

A poor translation
Neruda is great, no doubt about it. He even shines through in places here, despite these clunky and artless translations of his beautiful poems. If you really want to read a translation which retains Neruda's passion, try W.S. Merwin . Being a fine poet in his own right he has a light hand and a feel for words that is true to the spirit of Neruda's writings.

A poor translation
Neruda is great, no doubt about it. He even shines through in places here, despite these clunky and artless translations of his beautiful poems. If you really want to read a translation which retains Neruda's passion, try W.S. Merwin . Being a fine poet in his own right he has a light hand and a feel for words that is true to the spirit of Neruda's writings. ... Read more

Book Description
In his long life as a poet, Pablo Neruda succeeded in becoming what many poets have aspired to but never achieved: a public voice, a voice not just for the people of his country but for his entire continent. Widely translated, he probably reached more readers than any poet in history; justly so, for, as he often said, his "poet's obligation" was to become a voice for all those who had no voice, an aspiration that stemmed from his long-time commitment to the communist faith. Born in 1904 in the rainy south of Chile, he enjoyed from an early age the luck of attention. One of his first books, Twenty Love Poems, became a bible for lovers in the Spanish language, and confirmed him in his poet's vocation. At the same time he pursued a lifelong career as a diplomat, serving in a series of consular posts in the Far East and Europe. In 1971, while serving as Chilean ambassador to France, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. In a famous essay, "On Impure Poetry," Neruda calls for "a poetry as impure as old clothes, as a body with its foodstains and its shame, with wrinkles, observations, dreams, wakefulness, prophesies, declarations of love and hate, stupidities, shocks, idylls, political beliefs, negations, doubts, affirmations, and taxes." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

Pablo Neruda: Selected Poems
I was a rookie when it comes to reading stylized writings like that of Pablo Neruda.I ordered the book as a friend suggested thinking it would be an impressive addition to my library not realizing that I would really enjoy his deep, thought-provoking and yet whimsical poems.My recommendation is to try it, you'll like it!!

Sucede que me canso de ser hombre
Neruda was my companion during a 7 months journey and i remember clearly as water how many times i took this book with me to read it in front of the ocean. I am not very fond to poetry but with Neruda its impossible not in fall in love with the magic of words. You should have this book in your hands and heart.

Que bueno
Que bueno la traduccion y el original... Neruda es lo mejor de los mejores. Un libro exquisito.

In agreement
I actually got this collection to study up on my Spanish, and I found myself emmersed in his tangible words.I found it interesting that some of the translations seem slightly weaker in English, but maybe that's just me.

What I like about Neruda is that his poetry can really talk to a general readership without sacrificing the aestheticism of poetic language.He seems to have an uncanny way of being brutally raw with his lanugaue, while letting the images, hard as they are, float softly, like flower petals.

Maybe I'm in love with the guy.Oh to be a poet.

UN LIBRO DE COLECCION
A MUST HAVE.Es sin duda un libro que vas a cuidar y conservar con mucho cariño.La recoleccion de poemas es brillante, exquisita, de primera.Quien no ha leido a Neruda?Lo bello del libro es que ofrece los poemas en el idioma que fueron escritos y en Ingles.La traduccion al ingles es excelente.No hay mucho que hablar sobre este libro, los poemas son una obra de arte y que esten a la vez traducidos al Ingles ya es mas que un buen regalo.No pienses dos veces en obtenerlo. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (7)

A missed opportunity. Una lastima.
I was very excited for this book, hoping to fill in gaps of my Neruda collection. but after reading it I was frustrated and disappointed, not only in the quality of many of the translations and the lack of the Spanish there next to the English, but I feel the editor left out many important poems while putting in a lot of Neruda's weaker work. It was clunky. I found a review in the New York Book Review on the web by the poet Charles Simic which explains my thoughts perfectly:

"As one would expect from an undertaking aiming to be so comprehensive in scope, The Poetry of Pablo Neruda is an uneven book. There are first-rate translations by John Felstiner, Margaret Sayers Peden, Jack Schmitt, Greg Simon, Alastair Reid and a dozen others alongside many mediocre ones. I'm not competent to judge the accuracy of individual translations, but I can compare their quality as poems since there are previous renderings of the same poems which seem to me far superior to the ones we have here. For instance, neither of the two versions of "Walking Around" in this book are as good as the one I quoted by H.R. Hays, or the one W.S. Merwin did years ago. As their worst, the translations do not convey the stylistic range and verbal integunity of the original, making Neruda sound instead like a Chilean Carl Sandburg.

The choice of poems is also at times debatable. In order to make the book representative of all of Neruda's work, Stavans has left out some well-known poems and included plenty of questionable ones..."

A missed opportunity. Una lastima.

Essential For Any Lover of Neruda
I admit to being a ?Neruda junkie.?I read his poetry daily.In fact, I read everything about Pablo Neruda I can find.Although I can read and speak Spanish fluently, I was so happy to find this comprehensive volume of Neruda?s poetry in English.

Although Neruda was heavily influenced by both Rimbaud and Baudelaire, his style is really all his own.This book lets us see how Neruda changed and experimented over the years and also how the themes of melancholia and sensual, romantic love stayed with him throughout his life, though they were translated into his poetry in different ways, depending on the period one is studying.

Neruda began his career early in his life, writing sensual, erotic poems the public in Chile loved.The volume that ?launched? his career, ?Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair,? can be found in this book and it is, even today, Neruda?s bestselling volume of poetry worldwide.When Neruda was sent to Asia, however, his style changed and became more solitary, more meditative and Neruda, who felt very isolated in Asia, has translated this isolation well in the volume, ?Residence on Earth.?

In 1934, Neruda left Asia for Spain where he was much happier.His happiness was short-lived, however, because the Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936 and Neruda lost one of his best friends, Federico Garcia Lorca during this time period.

Back in Chile, Neruda decided to use his talent to further his political causes and his style became more and more simple, as it was directed to the masses rather than to the literary elite.An anarchist, Neruda became an ardent Communist, something that, in 1948, caused him to flee Chile for Argentina.

This book contains Neruda?s ?Canto general,? a historical epic of Latin America.I don?t particularly care for this long poem, but most experts consider it one of Neruda?s best and the book would certainly have been incomplete without it.Any serious lover of Neruda?s work should definitely familiarize himself with ?Canto general.?Whether one likes it or not, it is extremely important.

In 1950, Neruda returned to Chile and, instead of returning to his sensual love poetry, he wrote poems about the most ordinary things.His simple style, which encompasses ordinary ideas and themes, was very popular in Chile.Personally, it?s some of my least favorite of Neruda?s work.

The autumn of Neruda?s life was filled with productivity and he produced much love poetry, almost all of it inspired by his third wife, Matilde Urrutia.The poems written during this period are found in the books, ?The Captain?s Verses,? ?One Hundred Love Sonnets,? and ?Barcarole.?These volumes contain some of Neruda?s most beautiful love poetry and showcase a mature, shared love rather than the infatuation of youth.

Although most people will always associate Neruda with love poetry (he, himself, considered himself first and foremost a ?love poet?), this volume, THE POETRY OF PABLO NERUDA, shows us that there was a dark and violent side to Neruda?s nature as well as a sensual one and that his life?s work encompasses many styles and many themes.

As large as this book is, it doesn?t include all of Neruda?s work.He was extremely prolific.It does, however, contain Neruda?s best poems and a wonderful cross-section of his work through the years.The editor, Ilan Stavans, has sometimes included more than one translation of a single work, and many of the poems can be found in the original Spanish as well as in English translation.

THE POETRY OF PABLO NERUDA is a book for true lovers of Neruda?s poetry.It is a book they really can?t afford to be without.

A 'must' for any college-level collection
Poetry Of Pablo Neruda isn't just another slim coverage of poet Neruda's works: it's a definitive, comprehensive collection which makes available in a single volume of English nearly six hundred of his works, many in new translation, and many accompanied by the Spanish original. This sourcebook is an essential addition to any collection seeking a comprehensive gathering of Neruda's achievements under one cover: a 'must' for any college-level collection and many a public library holding.

You will fall in love with the Chilean poet
I had never read Pablo Neruda's poetry before until my girlfriend gave me this book for my birthday. I loved it! The early romantic poems are amazing. I also loved the way the Chilean poet wrote about his own country and about poverty and repression in Latin America. The reader gets a sense of history through an artistic viewpoint. There are plenty of poems in this excellent collection and the translations are really good. I think the editor did a great job. I highly recommend it.

Beautiful
I loved this book. I has my favorite poems by Pablo Neruda. ... Read more

Book Description
A beautiful new gift book of Pablo Neruda's greatest love poems for all occasions.

"One of the greatest major poets of the twentieth century."—The New York Times Book ReviewCharged with sensuality and passion, Pablo Neruda's love poems caused a scandal when published anonymously in 1952. In later editions, these verses became the most celebrated of the Noble Prize winner's oeuvre, captivating readers with earthbound images that reveal in gentle lingering lines an erotic re-imagining of the world through the prism of a lover's body: "today our bodies came vast, they grew to the edge of the world / and rolled melting / into a single drop / of wax or meteor...." Written on the paradisal island of Capri, where Neruda "took refuge" in the arms of his lover Matilde Urrutia, Love Poems embraces the seascapes around them, saturating the images of endless shores and waves with a new, yearning eroticism. This wonderful book collects Neruda's most passionate verses. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Shame on you, New Directions
James Laughlin must be turning in his grave. New Directions, one of the greatest presses in 20th Century literary history, has sunk to the wrong directions now in the 21st: they are letting marketing triumph over literaryethics and literature itself: This "Love Poems" is just a slick deceptive cover of Neruda's single book, "The Captain's Verses," which in itself is a great book, an important book in Neruda's oeuvre, with a good translation by Donald Walsh-- but to be so deceptive and re-title it as a marketing gimmick?

I returned this book to Amazon after I found out what was underneath the false cover.

They say "in later editions, these verses became the most celebrated of the Noble Prize winner's oeuvre" In later editions? This is one edition, and it's not true that it "collects Neruda's most passionate verses." It collects some of them, but with The Captain's Verses there's a bunch of mediocre poems. Neruda had a high batting average, but not every poem he wrote was outstanding. Frankly, I'm peeved at ND for this gimmickry. The great press under Laughlin that took risks and brought us William Carlos Williams, Herman Hesse's Siddhartha, Lawrence Ferlinghetti-- you want a vanguard press that would never succumb to commercialism over the inherent principles of literature-- Ferlinghetti's City Lights-- If you want Neruda's love poetry, check out his The Essential Neruda: Selected Poems-- it truly is the essence of Pablo, with some of his best love poems. Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair: Dual Language Edition (Penguin Classics)is of course one of poetry's great classics, but it only represents the voice of Neruda in his twenties, without the broad scope and some of his best love lyrcis throughout one of the most prolific careers in the history of modern poetry. 100 Love Sonnets: Cien sonetos de amor (Texas Pan American Series) has some great Neruda love poems, but the majority, trully, aren't so great. And personally, along with others I know, feel that much of the inherent power of Neruda's poems in this book are lost in Tapscott's flat translations. If you do want The Captain's Verses, show New Directions that you can't judge--or change, for marketing reasons--a book by its cover, and get the original, The Captain's Verses ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Beautiful heartfelt work
Mr Neruda captures the feeling and emotion of love in these written works. They are from the movie IL POSTINO and have incredible impact.

May Your Heart Break Loose On the Wind
POETRY by Pablo Neruda

And it was at that age...Poetry arrived
in search of me. I don't know, I don't know where
it came from, from winter or a river.
I don't know how or when,
no, they were not voices, they were not
words, nor silence,
but from a street I was summoned,
from the branches of night,
abruptly from the others,
among violent fires
or returning alone,
there I was without a face
and it touched me.

I did not know what to say, my mouth
had no way
with names
my eyes were blind,
and something started in my soul,
fever or forgotten wings,
and I made my own way,
deciphering
that fire
and I wrote the first faint line,
faint, without substance, pure
nonsense,
pure wisdom
of someone who knows nothing,
and suddenly I saw
the heavens
unfastened
and open,
planets,
palpitating plantations,
shadow perforated,
riddled
with arrows, fire and flowers,
the winding night, the universe.

And I, infinitesimal being,
drunk with the great starry
void,
likeness, image of
mystery,
I felt myself a pure part
of the abyss,
I wheeled with the stars,
my heart broke loose on the wind.

When I first read this poem, something within me blossomed. It was as if Neruda had found a way to pry open my soul and let the True Light, the True Love, and the True Life of my life to finally come forth; naked, unashamed, and gloriously beautiful.

Even though this book only contains ten little poems, you will get so much enjoyment out of each and every one of them. I even gave a copy of this book to someone whose primary reading interests were that of Mad Magazine and the classifieds and he said he never imagined that reading could be so sensual and yet so soulful.

May your heart and soul break wide open and may the radiant jewels that are within come forth for all to see.

Peace and blessings...

love poems
after watching il postino the italian film the poetry in the movie had me craving more.excellent what a talent how lucky his wife was to have so much love directed toward her.

A great starting place for new Nerudarians
A great, tiny smattering of love poems by the great Chilean poet and activist, mainly featuring the work of his used in the Italian film, "Il Postino" (if you're a poet and you haven't seen it, you're not actually a poet. You're a person with a journal filled likely with meandering words and diary ruminations and you will give birth to children with monocled vision due to their cyclopian disformities). A must-have for anyone deigning to create poetry of the love stripe, and totally affordable.A perfect launhcing pad for anyone not yet aware of Neruda's incredible amount of excellent, excellent work.

Romantic and Sensual
Love, Ten Poems by Pablo Neruda is a romantic short collection by one of the most sensual and romantic poets I have ever read. Neruda draws all of your senses into his world and you want to stay there, never to leave.One wants to find the beauty as he paints it for you, the reader.His wife is the muse of most of his love sonnets.As Neruda says, "Love is so short, forgetting is so long."

I recommend this incredible poet to all who love to read poetry and to those who long to find their love and especially to those who have that love in their life.Neruda's romance will stir your heart and have you soaring.

Read it with your significant other and the emotions will carry you both up and away.Neruda's poems are powerful and their beauty sears into your heart with his words echoing long after.These poems were featured in the movie, The Postman.You cannot help feeing affected by the power of Neruda.He has to be one of THE most powerful masters of the written word. ... Read more

Book Description

On the Blue Shore of Silence celebrates the centenary of the birth of Pablo Neruda, one of the most widely read and best-loved poets of the twentieth century.

Customer Reviews (5)

Simply so beautiful
The coast of California, where Mary Heebner lives, is so parallel in its geography, blueness, and diverse forms of the shores from rocks to cliffs to wide sand to Neruda's mar at Isla Negra where he'd look out at that same Pacific ocean to form his poems. Mary is able to capture that intrinsic beauty of his sea and his poetry in this wonderful book of art. And you could ask for no better translator than Alastair Reid. Neruda loved how he'd walk barefoot all around his house and the beach at Isla Negra barefoot. And he loved his translations, as do I. Neruda said that "to me, the ocean is an element like air." This book of his poems about his sea, combined with the sublime blues of Mary Heebner's art, makes for such a great book for your coffee table, or as a gift, as I have given it now to six different people.

--Mark Eisner, editor of The Essential Neruda: Selected Poems

Beautiful Poetry, Beautiful Art!
I love Pablo's poetry. I didn't think it was possible for the art to be as beautiful as the poetry. But it is.

Pablo Neruda
The poetry in this book is exquisite.The presentation is excellant.I own a copy of it, myself, and bought three more to give as gifts.

An Amazing Compilation
Of all the Neruda anthologies that I have read, this is by far the most eloquent tribute to his love of the sea and his home on Isla Negra in Chile.

The English translations are done by Alastair Reid, Mr. Neruda's favored translator and it flows as naturally as does the Spanish original.I speak both languages and it is always such a pleasure to see a translation so elegantly done.

The artwork by Mary Heebner is as sumptuous as Pablo Neruda's poetry and truly reflects the feel of the ocean.Her paintings capture the mood of each poem perfectly and add to the emotion of his words.

It is I believe the only anthology that has focused solely on his poems of the sea.

The book is bilingual with the text in Spanish on one page and English on the other. It contains my favorite of Neruda's poems, The Soliloquy of the Waves.

Even the typeset and Neruda's name on the dust jacket painted in a blurry sea blue reflect the ocean that the poems are about.

Pablo Neruda has been a favorite poet of mine for many, many years and this stunning book is a wonderful addition to my collection of his anthologies.It is a beautiful piece to celebrate his centenary.

A beautiful compilation and excellent gift.
The choices are fine works by Neruda. While many collections of Neruda's work exist, most lack beauty in their presentation. This release is both a feast for the eye (thanks to the lovely yet appropriate art)as well as a treat for the soul (particularly if you are in love). ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (6)

Absolutely beautiful
From very first pages, I was swept away into another world. You do not need to be familiar with Neruda or Chile to enjoy this book, but it helps. Neruda, while well known for his immense contribution to poetry, is a stunning writer of prose.

beautifully written
Memoirs by Pablo Neruda was simply the most beautifully written autobiography i have ever laid eyes on... Not only does he talk about his exceptional journey through life, from his childhood in the forest to his worldwide travels as a chilean diplomat (and encounters with famous personalities along the way), but his abundant observations and insights on life are an inspiration to anyone who has cruised through life while wondering where they are headed. Beautiful language and keen observations. Reading it made me wish I knew Spanish...

Here's my favorite quote from the book: "It lies not in our power to love or hate, for will in us is overruled by fate"

An Extraordinary Poet - An Extraordinary Life!
Pablo Neruda's "Memoirs" is not a comprehensive autobiographical document. It is a personal memoir, recounted as if the author was sitting around a table, with good friends and a bottle of excellent Chilean wine, telling tales of the people, anecdotes and incidents that were so important in his life. "Confieso Que He Vivido," means I confess that I have lived. And Sr. Neruda certainly did that...with zest, zeal and so much talent. The translation by Hardie St. Martin is a good one, but it does not do justice to Neruda's beautiful skill with the Spanish language. He romances the language, like no other, even with his prose.

Neruda was born, the son of a railroad worker, in the then frontier wilderness of Southern Chile in 1904. He led a bohemian lifestyle, dressing in black "like the true poets of the last century," during his university years in Santiago. His shyness, the "kink in the soul,"...especially of women, took him a while to overcome. He describes the people and places of that period with great 'carino' (love). His political ideology began to form at that time also, and politics became an integral part of his writing. The Student Federation, student demonstrations and the subsequent repression, had a great impact on the young intellectual.

Neruda led a rich and fascinating life. World traveled throughout his life, he served as Chilean consul in Burma, Ceylon, and Java. He was the consul in Spain during the Spanish Civil War, and during this time "Nine Love Poems" from "Veinte Poemas de Amor y Una Cancion Desesperada" was published. It was at this time also, that his friend Federico Garcia Lorca was killed. Neruda was present in Paris to organize a worldwide anti-Facist congress of writers that would be held in Madrid. His writing about Spain during the war is heartbreaking. Returning to Chile in 1938, he found a burgeoning Fascist movement in his own beloved land.

I particularly enjoyed his account of the time he spent in Mexico, as consul. He tells of his encounters with the great Mexican painters there.

After returning home, Neruda ran for political office and was elected to Chile's Senate in 1945. He was later removed from his Senate seat after joining the Communist Party.

His friends included: Garcia Lorca, Ehrenburg, Picasso, Siqueiros, Diego Rivera, Octavio Paz, Miguel Angel Asturias, Gandhi, Nehru, Mao, Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, and most sadly, Salvador Allende.

Pablo Neruda's death, just weeks after the brutal murder of Chile's President Allende, is something I will never forget. I was living in Colombia at that time, and remember where I was and what I was doing when I learned of Allende's death, and later heard of Neruda's passing. It called to mind, then and now, my recollections, as a young girl, when President Kennedy's assassination was announced. I always thought Neruda died of a broken heart.

This is an exceptionally good memoir, told with great charm, in a series of vignettes. I highly recommend it, especially to anyone who has read and enjoyed Pablo Neruda's poetry - to my mind some of the most beautiful in the world. It also gives us a glimpse of the politics of the left from the point of view of a Latin American - not the usual perspective, and well worth while.

An incredible life's journey
Although not a fan of autobiographies, Neurda's Memoirs is a must.Memoirs traces his life and adventures from rural Chile to such places as India and pre-world war two Europe.Not only did he visit such wonderful places, but his timing and the role he plays in events is absolutly amazing.Moreover, one gets to see such events through the eye of a poet making Memoirs a rich and stirring read.Reading this not only gives perspective on where Neurda's passion for life came from, but his values and his poetry.

Unforgettable Neruda
Neruda is one of the best poets ever. Besides, such a marvelous human being, generous, romantic and lovely person. After visiting one of his houses in Santiago, Chile with my boyfriend, I could have a better feeling on how he behaved in is everyday life. This made me admire Neruda much more. Don't you think a Neruda's book is the perfect Valentine's gift? I do! ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (20)

Bad Translation!
My Spanish reading skills are very basic, and I know that the best translations are not necessarily the most literal.Still, I was jolted by Belitt's language.

The English translations here seem not at all what Neruda intended!They are awkward and stilted where the originals sing. Clarity becomes confusion.Meanings are lost. "Respeto" becomes "deference.""Fria" becomes "glacial."Where repetitions bring a wonderful rhythm to a Neruda original,Belitt feels compelled to switch it up for some near-synonym. Commas drop in from the sky. Line breaks are changed for no reason (or rhyme). Words intended to fall at the end of a line, for emphasis, are transposed with ones originally in the middle.Extra words, extra meanings are thrown in.Consider this final phrase of Dream Horse:
"desnudo sin herraduras y radiante."

Roughly translated it means "stripped of (or freed of) its horseshoes and radiant."

Belitt turns it into: "naked to the bridle and iron, shimmering, whinnying there."

I am no poet and no translator. Neither is Belitt!

Wonderful Poetry; Execrable Translations
One just doesn't get the chance to use a dandy word like "execrable" that often, but there's no better word for Ben Belitt's translations.'nuff said.

On the other hand, the poems themselves are magnificent.If you have enough Spanish to catch their rhythms you can appreciate them without letting the ghastly translations spoil your enjoyment.

Just compare the introductions
I have never read Neruda but recevied this as a gift. I sat down to read the introduction by the translator and was confused and dismayed from the beginning.
The language was incomprehensible and seemingly purposefully complex. Then I read the intro by Neruda which was a thing of beauty.
I read the English "translation" of the first couple of poems and was again dismayed. Then I started comparing the Spanish and decided that there were MANYphrases which seemed to be odd translations. At first I thought that I was just unaccustomed to translated poetry but the more I read the more sure I was that the translations were off. I too was surprised that despite my limited Spanish and lack of prior exposure to Neruda I could immediately tell that the translations were bizarre. I described this to my family and finally started checking other people's responses on line and I am relieved to find that I was not alone. I am looking for a different translation.

Worst. Translations. Ever.
Do NOT buy this book for the English translations - it often seems that the author is a student who is attempting to complete an assignment in the hour remaining before his high school Spanish class.Please republish this book as "Pablo Neruda: What I Think He's Saying - Ben Belitt".Awful at best.

¡Qué verguenza!
I just sat down for a quiet night of reading some wonderful Pablo Neruda poems while sipping from a soothing cup of warm tea, and I was rudely shocked at the ham-handed translations I found on the pages of this book!

I am not particularly a fan of poetry, but Mr. Neruda's transcendent and passionate work has always held a special place in my heart. I discovered Mr. Neruda's poems in the original Spanish some time ago, but I bought this edition more recently because I feared that the last few years in Italy had eroded by Spanish skills to the point that I'd benefit from having my native English to refer to for help. Instead, the translations left me appalled.

Anyone reading Mr. Neruda's poems for the first time with this book could only assume that this great poet was a mediocre talent trying to impress beyond his abilities. The rhythm is gone, the intelligence is altered, and the word choice sometimes sounds as if it was produced by one of those annoying Internet translation programs. At points, I was seriously left wondering if Mr. Belitt is even a native English speaker.

It's a terrible shame, too, because it's so nice to have both languages in the same edition. And while I am strongly critical of Mr. Belitt's translations, I cannot at all fault his selection of poems: all of the Neruda poems I like best are here, whether they are well known or obscure.

As I am about to file this review, I see that all but a couple of my fellow reviewers came to the same conclusion I did. Take our advice, please! Seek out another, better translation of Mr. Neruda's work. I'm not sure which to suggest, but rest assured that you could hardly find an inferior one. ... Read more

Book Description
The atom, a tuna, laziness, love--the everyday elements and essences of human experience glow in the translucent language of Neruda's odes. Chilean poet Pablo Neruda wrote three books of odes during his lifetime. Odas elementales was published in 1954, followed in subsequent years by Nuevas odas elementales and Tercer libro de las odas. Margaret Sayers Peden's selection of odes from all three volumes, printed with the Spanish originals on facing pages, is by far the most extensive yet to appear in English. She vividly conveys the poet's vision of the realities of day-to-day life in her trans-lations, while her brief introduction describes the genesis of the poems. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

If you can only afford to buy one Neruda book,
this one is a good choice. I particularly like his ode to my suit. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Beautiful
I love his poetry. The translation is not as good as I expected but it's OK. The drawings are beautiful.

It began with my flatware and a buttercup...
This book was recommended to me from an extended discussion of photographs I found on a beautiful blog, Throughlines. The photo's there were taken when out in a mindful way looking at life by the writer, teacher, artist. These "ordinary", simple, composed, artfelt shots he took in his wandering...and they drew me in... and remain one of my favorite places to go look at photos. I was coincidentally drawing silver tableware. One of his photo's was of forks and this related to illustrations in this book. This fleeting exchange of feeling about the work with the photographer, English teacher in Hawaii led me to order the book he suggested.His blog leads one to read.And even more coincidentally a poet I admire also recommended the volume to me. It is as good as those recommendations-better. It has been a companion.

Perhaps it is about noticing life in the ordinary, the cup, spoon, the feel of the grit, sweat and use of the things we touch everyday. Neruda is so sensual, in Spanish sublimely so. He can turn a cup into the lips that you would love to place fingertips to caress. It's in this he has so very few equals. And given your heart's mood it can be a very deep container of all of the emotions that things provoke, lost friends, family, memories, traces. I'm trying to read these in both languages cycling the poems into my days life. I carry it in my purse and find it at times I can read in my peace..restore my inner self. And took the book on my trip to Chicago enjoying it on the plane, in my room, on the way here and there, in a rather bad diner, in the joy of being away with myself. And read it over and over in the hours and hours spent over two months in doctors offices waiting help with my chest and poor tummy. The book was very comforting I felt through it..
This is a lovely volume, a beautiful book to choose as a gift, it is illustrated with tender delicate black and white pencil illustrations of just the things that are everyday, salt shaker, spoon (my favorite), table each serving to highlight the focus of the poem. Neruda rides so close to heart rhythms, sounds, smells, the crush of silk on a thigh, the sound of the morning thrush, nothing is quite like reading this poet. At one time as a younger person i just could not read him, I felt so voyeuristic. Now a poem a day or so has been very touching. Very personal and like the objects he describes inside my places and moments.

I recall now that this was all tied conversationally to mentioning my thinking of Janet Fish originally, the super realist painter of glass and objects that have meanings just for her, where light and reflection dances us through the spaces. Indeed here Neruda dances us through these objects as connections to our meanings, his meanings, the blood of life.

This is the quintessential Naruda tome.
I cannot be without this book.It gives one all there could be to know about love and life.It is well worth its cost and leaves the reader that much smarter about everything that matters in love (and life)

Delicious reading
Neruda's use of language is truly sensual, in both English and Spanish.I must read for word lovers.

Ode to the Odes to Common Things Book
WOW. I've never been so moved by this book. As I began to read it, I sensed so many different things. How can such wonderful feelings be sensed by such common things. Pablo Neruda is a master in poetry. Im only 16 years old and I've never been so moved by such poetry. what an amazing man he was. it takes real gift to be able and write like that. This book really touched me, that sense and feeling in every line was enchanting. read this book, and you'll appreciate almost everything in life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

autobiografia poetica
Para los que gustan de un buen relato hecho por uno de los mayores literatos de nuestra epoca, no busquen mas.Neruda es sin duda un gigante en el mundo de la literatura hispana contemporanea. Para conocer mejor el periodo historico que describe en este libro sugiero que lean la historia de la guerra civil Espanola y conozcan bien el pensamiento de los intelectuales de la epoca. Es claro que Neruda romantiza el socialismo sovietico sin conocerlo bien pero eso no disminuye esta obra maestra que entre prosa ypoesia nos deja sedientos...... Hoy en dia cuando tenemos que satisfacernos con traducciones mediocres de autores cuasi-literatos sentimos la falta de estos genios de la literatura hispana.

Great writing and somewhat distorted view of reality
I enjoyed reading this extremely well written memoir by a leading poet. The book has greatly improved my Spanish and my knowledge of Hispanic culture. However, I cannot, for the life of me, understand Neruda's fascination with the Soviet regime. His perception is historically simply wrong and it is quite shocking to read, especially for people who grew up under that regime. Was Neruda completely deceived, was he so clueless, or was he not honest in his reporting? He doesn't come through as a person lacking the ability to perceive things clearly. How did he manage, as a diplomat, to forget so easily the fact that WW2 began from a treaty known as Ribbentrop-Molotov?
Yet, sometimes one has the impression that he is trying to get himself excused from confronting difficult issues by telling us he is just a poet. His idealistic, child-like communism seems to be just a poet's dream and, sadly, has nothing to do with reality.

An Extraordinary Poet - An ExtraordinaryHuman Being - A Life Well Led!,
Pablo Neruda's "Memoirs" is not a comprehensive autobiographical document. It is a personal memoir, recounted as if the author were sitting around a table, with good friends and a bottle of excellent Chilean wine, telling tales of the people, anecdotes and incidents that were so important in his life. "Confieso Que He Vivido," means I confess that I have lived. And Sr. Neruda certainly did that...with zest, zeal and so much talent. I read Neruda's book in Spanish, but feel more comfortable writing this review in English. The translation by Hardie St. Martin is a good one, but it does not do justice to Neruda's extraordinary writing skills. He romances the Spanish language, like no other, even with his prose.

Neruda was born, the son of a railroad worker, in the then frontier wilderness of Southern Chile in 1904. He led a bohemian lifestyle, dressing in black "like the true poets of the last century," during his university years in Santiago. His shyness, the "kink in the soul,"...especially of women, took him a while to overcome. He describes the people and places of that period with great 'carino' (love). His political ideology began to form at that time also, and politics became an integral part of his writing. The Student Federation, student demonstrations and the subsequent repression, had a great impact on the young intellectual.

Neruda led a rich and fascinating life. World traveled, he served as Chilean consul in Burma, Ceylon, and Java. He was the consul in Spain during the Spanish Civil War, and during this time "Nine Love Poems" from "Veinte Poemas de Amor y Una Cancion Desesperada" was published. It was at this time also, that his friend Federico Garcia Lorca was killed. Neruda was present in Paris to organize a worldwide anti-Facist congress of writers that would be held in Madrid. His writing about Spain during the war is heartbreaking. Returning to Chile in 1938, he found a burgeoning Fascist movement in his own beloved land.

I particularly enjoyed his account of the time he spent in Mexico, as consul. He tells of his encounters with the great Mexican painters there.

After returning home, Neruda ran for political office and was elected to Chile's Senate in 1945. He was later removed from his Senate seat after joining the Communist Party.

His friends included: Garcia Lorca, Ehrenburg, Picasso, Siqueiros, Diego Rivera, Octavio Paz, Miguel Angel Asturias, Gandhi, Nehru, Mao, Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, and most sadly, Salvador Allende.

Pablo Neruda's death, just weeks after the brutal murder of Chile's President Allende, is something I will never forget. I was living in Colombia at that time, and remember where I was and what I was doing when I learned of Allende's death, and later heard of Neruda's passing. It called to mind, then and now, my recollections, as a young girl, when President Kennedy's assassination was announced. I always thought Neruda died of a broken heart.

This is an exceptionally good memoir, told with great charm, in a series of vignettes. I highly recommend it, especially to anyone who has read and enjoyed Pablo Neruda's poetry - to my mind some of the most beautiful in the world. It also gives us a glimpse of the politics of the left from the point of view of a Latin American - not the usual perspective, and well worth while.
JANA

muy hermosa prosa
Este es un libro de gran intensidad narrativa, lleno de fragmentos de una vida muy fructífera y muy poética. La vida que Neruda nos cuenta es fragmentaria y fragmentada, llena de elementos realistas de alto contenido poético. Como el mismo expresa, esa vida es muchas vidas, es la vida de todos los poetas. Este libro nos cuenta como vivió en su estadía por varios países en los cuales se sintió atacado de una aguda soledad que permeo su poesía y su vida, de como lo atrapo una guerra y de como llego a ser un comunista, buscando algo a que aferrarse, algo a que creer. Es un libro escrito en una prosa tremendamente hermosa, aunque a veces todas las descripciones que nos da nos cansan un poco y nos quedamos embobados en los detalles de una bella oración y no prestando atención al tema de que trata. Neruda es contagioso, me pasa igual que con su poesía, uno se deja llevar de esa dulce y empalagosa prosa y termina escribiendo como él. Creo que muchos que han leído a neruda han terminado escribiendo un poco como él. Es un libro intenso y hermoso y de ningún modo una biografía objetiva, que poeta lo es.?

Luis Mendez

La historia contemporanea vista por los ojos de Neruda
Aunque la primera vez que lei este libro fue porque me lo prestaron, quiero afirmar con un poco de verguenza que no quise devolverlo. Neruda y su estilo unico de narrativa nos presentan su diario de una forma poetica ya la vez tragicomica. Me identifique mucho con sus vivencias, muchas deestas a veces pasan por nuestra vida sin que les demos importancia peroNeruda nos enseña que aun las anecdotas por mas insignificantes queparecieran ser nos dejan una enseñanza perenne. Sin duda, una de los librosque mas me han ayudado en mi desarrollo humano, se los recomiendo con misojos cerrados y mi alma abierta. Abran ese libro y profundicenlo., y porsupuesto, no se lo roben, yo no lo hice, preferi devolverlo. Hubiese sidoun crimen dejar a mi amiga Luisa sin tan preciado tesoro. ... Read more

Book Description

Pablo Neruda is one of the world's most popular poets, and The Book of Questions is Copper Canyon's all-time best-seller. This updated bilingual edition is entirely re-designed and features a new cover, new interior, and an introduction by translator.

In The Book of Questions, Neruda refuses to be corralled by the rational mind. Composed of 316 unanswerable questions, these poems integrate the wonder of a child with the experiences of an adult. By turns Orphic, comic, surreal, and poignant, Neruda's questions lead the reader beyond reason into realms of intuition and pure imagination.

Tell me, is the rose naked
or is that her only dress?
Why do trees conceal
the splendor of their roots?
Is there anything in the world sadder
than a train standing in the rain?

When Neruda died in 1973, The Book of Questions was one of eight unpublished poetry manuscripts that lay on his desk. In it, Neruda achieves a deeper vulnerability and vision than in his earlier work-and this unique book is a testament to everything that made Neruda an artist.

"Neruda's questions evoke pictures that make sense on a visual level before the reader can grasp them on a literal one. The effect is mildly dazzling [and] O'Daly's translations achieve a tone that is both meditative and spontaneous." -Publishers Weekly

Pablo Neruda, born in southern Chile, led a life charged with poetic and political activity. He was the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, the International Peace Prize, and served as Chile's ambassador to several countries, including Burma, France, and Argentina. He died in 1973.

II.

Tell me, is the rose naked
or is that her only dress?

Why do trees conceal
the splendor of their roots?

Who hears the regrets
of the thieving automobile?

Is there anything in the world sadder
than a train standing in the rain?

XIV.

And what did the rubies say
standing before the juice of pomegranates?

Why doesn't Thursday talk itself
into coming after Friday?

Who shouted with glee
when the color blue was born?

Why doe ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Brief Lines That Create Nostalgia For Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda is much missed as a poet and thinker.Since his death in 1973 there has been an even stronger growing of appreciation for his unique style of writing.During his last days he composed this strange little collection of some 300-odd questions and a number of poems all dealing with the life cycle as only one who sees his end at hand can write. The subjects are death, rebirth and nature in as complete a marriage of intention as any poet has created.They are beautifully translated by William O'Daly.

Intending his reader to be stimulated by his words to create a visual image that is personal, his questions from this volume so aptly titled 'The Book of Questions' open our eyes and our minds to some rapturously beautiful experiences.Examples:

'Why don't inanimate things
do something?

Where did a celestial body
leave something tonight?

Why don't they train helicopters
to suck honey from the sunlight?

Where did the full moon leave
its sack of flour tonight?'

Warmly humorous, touching and eventually elevating, the questions remain on the backs of our eyes awaiting reentry into our brains for relish at needy times.Neruda is a poet for all seasons.Just read this book and discover.Grady Harp, December 06

There is a zen-like quality to Neruda's poems
_The Book of Questions_ defies easy description.Neruda composed over 70 poems in quatrains, two questions per quatrain - yet the depth of the questions and the variety of interpretations the reader can take from the questions is limitless.That the book contains English translations of the Spanish original is an added bonus.

The images are surreal, as if a Dali painting put to words.Further thought (and the poems ARE thought provoking) yields a different answer with each reading.There is a pervading sense of sadness to them, perhaps because Neruda was dying of cancer while he wrote them; but there is hope, here, too - and a wisdom that only a master poet can communicate.For example:

Where is the child I was,
still inside me or gone?

Why did we spend so much time
growing up only to seperate?

Neruda's _Book of Questions_ haunts and provokes, much like life itself.Highly recommended.

Questions for the Soul
With this book, Pablo Neruda takes the universe and turns it inside out; in doing so, he brings forth questions for which there are no answers, and which, at the same moment, lead us toward the questions and vibrations of our own souls.The questions may appear as nonsense, but in truth, they are of another language, that of the poet, and they are neither meant to be answered nor translated into the realms of the logical and linear.He embraces humor: "What will they think of my hat, the Polish, in a hundred years?" and "Is there anything sillier than to be called Pablo Neruda?"Yet he also delves into mystery of life and living:"Is 4 the same 4 for everybody? Are all sevens equal?"and "In the end, won't death be an endless kitchen?"While perhaps never having read C.S. Lewis' "A Grief Observed," Neruda picks up a thread from two lines of this short memoir of grief:"Is yellow square or round?How many hours are in a mile?"But while Lewis searches for answers in a prosaic realm, Neruda remains the poet of questions.His work also brings to mind a poem by American jani johe webster, "the color of august":"what is the sound of a shadow / how do you say a hope / can you see time in a dream".For a truly amazing experience, read William O'Daly's translation of "The Book of Questions" side by side with Ben Belitt's:it is an amazing study of words, meanings, translation, and most of all, questions.

Questions Without One Definitive Answer
Pablo Neruda's BOOK OF QUESTIONS is one of those books thatsimply cannot be read just once.Though the poems are short, they are questions that make you ponder and think about through out the day.Neruda covers just about everything, such as politics, society, nature, and life in general.

The most enlightening thing about poetry, especially Neruda's style of writing poetry, is that it lends itself to much interpretation.Anyone that reads this book will have their own answer and interpretation of what they think Neruda was trying to convey.For example, Neruda has a knack for covering politics.He writes:

"How did the grapes come to know
the cluster's party line?

And do you know which is harder,
to let run to seed or to do the picking?

It is bad to live without a hell:
aren't we able to reconstruct it?

And to position sad Nixon
with his buttocks over the brazier?

Roasting him on low
with North American napalm?"(p.18)

For the most part, the book has a zen-like quality, which suggests a complexity to the poems -- the sense of not-knowing, and moving towards intuitive perceptions, beyond rehearsed patterns of thinking and feeling (viii).In a way, it appears complex, but at the same time liberating.Neruda's poetry is simple in its structure.

Beyond analysis, BOOK OF QUESTIONS is also helpful for anyone trying to refresh their memory to read and write in spanish.The translations are wonderful and practical.I recommend this book as well as other books by Neruda because of this added bonus.

The World Through Questions
The BOOK OF QUESTIONS was written in 1973, a few months before Neruda's death to cancer. Troubled by the knowledge of his impending death, as well as by a U.S. backed coup threatening the Allende government in Chile (Leftist regime 1970-73), Neruda wrote several small books of brief poems, comprised simply of unanswerable questions, in the koan tradition (question/statement in the form of a paradox that disciples of Zen ponder). They are enigmatic, at times surreal, leaving you lost in labyrinths of deep thought, or in abstract bewilderment.

My favorite questions include:

Why do leaves commit suicide
When they feel yellow?

and

When the convict ponders the light
is it the same light that shines on you?

--ross saciuk ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

"Tal vez tú no sabías, araucana...
...que cuando antes de amarte me olvidé de tus besos mi corazón quedó recordando tu boca".
Uno de los sonetos de amor mas lindos y mas profundos que se han escrito! Neruda sabe como tratar su tema sin dejarse llevar por la melodia de sus palabras, escribe del amor como la siente y como la piense sin decir mas ni menos. Sus palabras se sienten, los disfrutas, son una bella cancion que suena real pero no estas seguro si es tu realidad, la que siempre sabias de ser asi o un suenio...

Un Poeta con mayúscula
Neruda sigue siendo uno de los grandes. Y este libro, uno de los clásicos indiscutibles.

Moving/Conmovedor!
The "Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada" is the best-selling book of poetry ever in the Spanish language and established Neruda as one of the great talents of the 20th century.Each of the 21 poems is touching, full of illusion and warmth, with an amazing use of imagery.The last two express loss and heartbreak in a breathtaking way.Poem #20 is perhaps the most famous:"Tonight I can write the saddest verse."

The "100 Sonetos," written many years later, contain some gems, though I much prefer the first book.Don't make the mistake of thinking that these were all written for the same woman -- they weren't!Neruda seduced many of his muses with his poetry.

Los "Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada" es el libro de poesía más popular en la historia del idioma español, y estableció a Neruda como uno de los talentos más grandes del siglo XX.Cada uno de los poemas es conmovedor, lleno de ilusión y calidez, con un uso asombrante de imágenes.Los dos últimos expresan el dolor de la pérdida en una forma espectacular.El poema #20 es probablemente el más famoso:"Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche."

El libro de los "Cien sonetos," escritos años después, contiene algunos poemas excelentes, pero carece de la misma vitalidad que el primero.No vayas a pensar que Neruda compuso todos estos poemas para la misma mujer!Sedujo a muchas de sus musas con su poesía.

A must read.
This is one of the first books of poetry that Neruda published back before the middle of the 20th century.It is an excellent and very recognized book - of poetry.I think the most important thing of Neruda is that he celebrated the goodness of poetry and good art.In that it is a way of enjoying life, and not gettting caught in the vanity or less popular ways of living or acting towards others (selfishness, greed etc).

This book is that.It is full of beauty.His poetry is one of the most recognized unversally, selling many copies (over amillion in spanish, and that was by 1956.

The most gratifying thing of this book and Neruda in gene