emmacolon's review against another edition
3.0
2.5
listen, pablo neruda was a trashcan of a person and it really shows in a lot of his work. loved this guy a bunch in high school and coming back to his poetry was so lovely in part, but also so eye opening. i think i would have deeply hated pablo neruda if i knew him irl.
but i won’t lie, “Tu Risa” is one of my favorite poems of all time and reading this in spanish is infinitely better than the english translation, so i did enjoy reading this
listen, pablo neruda was a trashcan of a person and it really shows in a lot of his work. loved this guy a bunch in high school and coming back to his poetry was so lovely in part, but also so eye opening. i think i would have deeply hated pablo neruda if i knew him irl.
but i won’t lie, “Tu Risa” is one of my favorite poems of all time and reading this in spanish is infinitely better than the english translation, so i did enjoy reading this
ethib77's review against another edition
4.0
Love this book, the poems are in Spanish and English, beautiful.
lucy_qhuay's review against another edition
2.0
I've read beautiful things from Pablo Neruda, but I can't say I enjoyed this one and how he connected everything with Nature and things surrounding it. Not that I don't like that kind of poetry. I just didn't enjoy the way he put things together.
There is one poem I loved, though:
El Monte Y El Río
En mi patria hay un monte.
En mi patria hay un río.
Ven conmigo.
La noche al monte sube.
El hambre baja al río.
Ven conmigo.
Quiénes son los que sufren?
No sé, pero son míos.
Ven conmigo.
No sé, pero me llaman
y me dicen "Sufrimos".
Ven conmigo.
Y me dicen: "Tu pueblo,
tu pueblo desdichado,
entre el monte y el río,
con hambre y con dolores,
no quiere luchar solo,
te está esperando, amigo".
Oh tú, la que yo amo,
pequeña, grano rojo
de trigo,
será dura la lucha,
la vida será dura,
pero vendrás conmigo.
turnerjoylynch's review against another edition
5.0
One of my favorite collections of poetry. Neruda seems to both fear and love the sea, of which he writes extensively in this collection, as well as the deep passionate love he shares with his mistress on the island where he must remain at in exile. An absolutely fantastic work, best read in the English & Spanish side by side version. It lends the most rawness and emotional power in the original language.
ricefun's review against another edition
4.0
Neruda was featured as a poetry episode on the How to Love Lit Podcast. I'm trying to read the works featured on that podcast, and was reminded of Neruda's poetry at a recent library stop. These poems are engaging and filled with fire and infatuation. Sometimes they included love, which is predictable in a collection of poetry with the subtitle of "The Love Poems." But that love was generally erotic, and often not straightforward. I still enjoyed reading these poems in periodic doses over the last few weeks.