Review (PDF) Selected Odes Of Pablo Neruda (Latin American Literature And Culture)
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 (1904-1973) 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 translations, while her brief introduction describes the genesis of the poems.To write simply of simple things was a task the poet undertook consciously, following his experiences in the Spanish Civil War, the "social conversion" that resulted from a visit to Macchu Picchu, and the writing of his epic Canto general (California, forthcoming). The odes are arranged in brief, sinuous lines that flow down the page and connect the poet to the animal, mineral, and vegetable world, to people and objects, and to the landscape of history. "Chile," Neruda once said in reference to the work of sixteenth-century poet Alonso de Ercilla, "was invented by a poet." In accepting the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971, he declared that "We [writers from the vast expanse of America] are called upon to fill with words the confines of a mute continent, and we become drunk with the task of telling and naming." The odes reflect what Neruda saw as both an obligation and a privilege—the naming and defining of his world.
Series: Latin American Literature and Culture (Book 4)
Paperback: 392 pages
Publisher: University of California Press; 3rd Revised edition edition (May 17, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0520269985
ISBN-13: 978-0520269989
Product Dimensions: 6 x 1 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #908,740 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #207 in Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Regional & Cultural > Caribbean & Latin American #234 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Poetry > Regional & Cultural > Caribbean & Latin American #1110 in Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Genres & Styles > Poetry
Odes for the everyday person about everyday things: artichokes, thread, chestnuts... The one that I bought the book for was "Ode to My Socks" - marvelous! I'll never feel the same about socks again. I also really enjoy the format with the original Spanish on one side of the page and the line-by-line English translation on the other, so you can enjoy it equally well in either language or both!
This book is an excellent selection from Pablo Neruda's 3 volumes of odes, very well translated by Margaret Sayers Peden, who also provides a concise introduction to her philosophy of translation. The statistics on the numbers of odes from each volume is as follows:"Elemental Odes" = 28"New Elemental Odes" = 13"Third Book of Odes" = 26What is also very nice about this volume is that Neruda's originals and Peden's translations are on facing pages, so that you can directly compare them and judge for yourself how well she has done, if you read Spanish. Speaking just for myself, I admit that I do not read Spanish, so I cannot fully judge how well Peden has done her translations. But on their own terms in English, I found the texts to be splendid.If you want to dip your toes in the poetry of Neruda, this volume makes an excellent place to begin.
this one is a good choice. I particularly like his ode to my suit.
Pablo Neruda Lee a Pablo Neruda [Pablo Neruda Reading Pablo Neruda] (Texto Completo) Selected Odes of Pablo Neruda (Latin American Literature and Culture) Selected Poems: Pablo Neruda (English and Spanish Edition) Full Woman, Fleshly Apple, Hot Moon: Selected Poems of Pablo Neruda Pablo Escobar, el patrón del mal (La parábola de Pablo) (Spanish Edition) Pablo Escobar, el patrón del mal (La parábola de Pablo) (MTI) (Spanish Edition) Foundational Fictions: The National Romances of Latin America (Latin American Literature and Culture) Neruda and Vallejo: Selected Poems Neruda: Selected Poems (English and Spanish Edition) Odes: With the Latin Text (Modern Library Classics) Transatlantic Travels in Nineteenth-Century Latin America: European Women Pilgrims (Bucknell Studies in Latin American Literature and Theory) History of a Voyage to the Land of Brazil (Latin American Literature and Culture) Left in Transformation: Uruguayan Exiles and the Latin American Human Rights Network, 1967 -1984 (Latin American Studies) The Cambridge Companion to Modern Latin American Culture (Cambridge Companions to Culture) Then Come Back: The Lost Neruda Guide to Law and Literature for Teachers, Students, and Researchers: Companion Text to Literature and Legal Problem Solving : Law and Literature As Ethical Discourse Fifteen Songs and Airs for Soprano or Tenor from the Operas and the Odes: English Language Edition (Kalmus Edition) Desert Tracings : Six Classic Arabian Odes by 'Alqama, Shanfara, Labid, 'Antara, Al-A'sha, and Dhu al-Rumma Outsiders?: The Changing Patterns of Exclusion in Latin America and the Caribbean, Economic and Social Progress in Latin America, 2008 Report (David Rockefeller/Inter-American Development Bank) The Book of Odes (Shijing)
