Review (PDF) Neruda: Selected Poems (English And Spanish Edition)
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."
Paperback: 508 pages
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin; Bilingual edition (September 10, 1990)
Language: English, Spanish
ISBN-10: 0395544181
ISBN-13: 978-0395544181
Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 1.2 x 8.4 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #599,992 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #147 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Poetry > Regional & Cultural > Caribbean & Latin American
pablo neruda is amazing and this book is a perfect example of his genius. Whether you have read neruda before or not, the book gives a sample of all of his best poems. also, even if you know only basic spanish, this bilingual edition is great. personally his love poems are my favorite, but his poems about spain and chile are amazing as well. like i said, i take this book with me everywhere and i keep rereading it, again and again. its definatly a 10.
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.
Neruda is truly the greatest literary voice of Chile in its entire history, and one of the biggest of latin american poetry of all the XX century, place which shares with mexican Octavio Paz.Neruda has been labeled in many ways, "poet of love", "politic poet", but he was beyond all this shallow aliases, he was a true poet in all the sense of the word.This volume is a good (but not quite perfect) aproximation to the works of the poet if Isla Negra, it lacks some poems, so the selection could have been better, and also it has translation mistakes (like not translating "calle maruri" in "Maruri street". This book is an entrance to the poetry of Neruda, but not the definite word.
This collection of Neruda's works spans all of his career and all of human emotion. A decidedly underrated poet in the spectrum of literature, Neruda repeatedly evokes and communicates emotion through his musings on himself and the world around him. Pablo Neruda confronts his emotions head on, remaining critical of himself and the way he chooses to love and live. The poet is at his best when pouring his heart out, when describing just how his woman makes him feel, when describing just what makes her so beautiful to him. Any fan of poetry who is unfamiliar with Pablo Neruda owes it to themselves to purchase this collection or one similar to is and marvel at this master poet's best work.
A fine collection of his works - for those of you who know and love this poet, this is a wonderful addition to your collection. For those of you new to him, this is a great introduction to this romantic poet. What woman does not long to be loved the way Neruda did his wife? A few collections from this book will be read at my upcoming wedding. The addition of both English and Spanish really makes you feel that you are reading Neruda's true voice.
If you are a fan of poetry and a student of Spanish, I highly suggest this book. If you want to just read the English, find a different book because this translation from the original Spanish into English is without any feeling. If you use the original, beautiful Spanish verses of Neruda as a jumping point, their true beauty can pulled from the dry and cranky English translation and make for an altogether interesting and interactive reading experience. You have to work a little, but it's worth it! :-)
Probably the best recent collection of Neruda's work, in a beautifully respectful bilingual edition. Neruda was a citizen of the world, but a native of Chile. His life was a kind of roadmap of radicalism, from his early consular assignments in Asia (his earliest collection, Residensia en la Tierra) to his residence in Spain during the years leading up to the Civil War (his admiration of Lorca), and his ultimate espousal of communism, Lorca was perhaps too passionate, too much a man of his times to resist being caught in the fray. His terrible death from cancer, just after the fall of Allende, was perhaps the price he paid for being so 'attached' to his own people, to the history of the 20th century. His work, however, is completely un-doctrinaire, so sensuous and lyrical. He was subsumed by the commandment of Rilke (whether or not he liked Rilke), who defined the poet's task as "to praise."
This collection, in my opinion, is the best book of Neruda's poems for readers in English. It contains the majority of his best poems, and it has a few translators (but not too many, four altogether) so we can say how different peoples interpretations read differently. That being said, these are some of the best translators of Neruda, and it has a great introduction by Alastair Reid.In addition to what it contains, the book itself is well made, a very good size and feel to it.This is one of those books I carry around with me all the time. In my opinion, Neruda is the best poet to ever live, he's addicting to read and truly a voice of the people, and this is the best volume of his work.
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