King Arthur Movie Tristan

title: The Essential Neruda Selected Poems (Bilingual Edition)


author: Pablo Neruda


edited by Mark Eisner


published: 2004


genre: poetry


pages: 199


rated: 5 out of 5

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 Haas, Jim Harrison, 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.



Pablo Neruda was born in Chile in 1904. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971.

Being a fan of Pablo Neruda's poetry, I wanted to get my hands on The Essential Neruda to take a look at more of his work. After reading Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, I fell in love with the poet.



The Essential Neruda contains 50 of Neruda's poems, not all of them about love.


I enjoyed this collection, a few of my favorites are in here, such as I Can Write the Saddest Lines, Leaning into the Afternoons and I Like For You To Be Still.

I did find the translation to be slightly different from the poems in Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, due to the different translators. I love reading Neruda's work in Spanish, it is painfully beautiful.

There is definitely something lost in translation, the feel of the work is a bit different when read in English. The words flow better in it's original Spanish text. I'm a sucker for sad poetry about love and heartache.



Though Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair remains my favorite collection of Neruda's poetry, I'm glad I read The Essential Neruda. I got to experience more of the poets work.

How can you not love Neruda's way with words?

Body of my woman, I will persist in your grace.

My thirst, my infinite anguish, my indecisive path!

Dark riverbeds where eternal thirst follows,

and fatigue follows, and infinite sorrow.

-excerpt from Body of woman

There is also a poem in this collection called Ode With A Lament, that he wrote while his daughter was gravely ill. This one brought a tear to my eye.

Only with kisses and red poppies can I love you,

with rain-soaked wreaths

contemplating ashen horses and yellow dogs.

Only with waves at my back can I love you...

There's just so much beautiful and moving poetry in this collection, I can't possibly fit it all into one post. So I'll definitely continue posting his work regulary at my blog like I have been. I've gotten some great feedback on those posts and it makes me happy to see others enjoying Neruda's work as well.















excerpt from Ode to the book II


Book,

beautiful

book,

miniscule forest,

leaf

after leaf

your paper

smells

of the elements

you are

matutinal and nocturnal,

vegetal,

oceanic,

in your ancient pages

bear hunters,

camp fires

near the Mississippi

canoes

in the islands,

later

roads

and roads,

revelations