nanikeeva's review against another edition
5.0
very fun to have to engage the poetry-enjoying gears of the brain for once!
lokster71's review against another edition
4.0
I started this book back in the summer and have been reading it in little chunks on and off since. It has side-by-side versions of each poem in Spanish and English so its thickness as an object is slightly deceptive. It's depth as literature though is unfathomable.
Poetry in translation is always an oddity. Poetry is language distilled. Its rhythms and rhymes are hard to duplicate in translation. "The original is unfaithful to the translation" as Jorge Luis Borges once said. And it also reminds me in particular of my pathetic monoglot Englishness. I wish I could read them in the original Spanish and reach for my own translation, which would probably be worse but it would be mine.
Neruda's poetry is sometimes hard to understand. That's not a bad thing. Sometimes it is simple but always there are lines and images that make one gasp and this selection makes me want to read everything he wrote.
I have long liked the poem, 'Tonight I Can Write.../Puedo Escribir Los Versos...' from 'Veinte Poemas De Amor' (1924) since I came across it elsewhere but there is wonderful poem after wonderful poem in here. Poems about love and loss. Poems about politics and poems about poetry. I really liked the selection from 'Odas Elementales' (1954), particularly 'Ode To a Yellow Bird'. I wish I could hear these poems read out loud, which I think is the way poetry should be heard. I'm going off now to find out if there are any out there on the internet.
I really enjoyed this collection. It repays the work put into it.
Poetry in translation is always an oddity. Poetry is language distilled. Its rhythms and rhymes are hard to duplicate in translation. "The original is unfaithful to the translation" as Jorge Luis Borges once said. And it also reminds me in particular of my pathetic monoglot Englishness. I wish I could read them in the original Spanish and reach for my own translation, which would probably be worse but it would be mine.
Neruda's poetry is sometimes hard to understand. That's not a bad thing. Sometimes it is simple but always there are lines and images that make one gasp and this selection makes me want to read everything he wrote.
I have long liked the poem, 'Tonight I Can Write.../Puedo Escribir Los Versos...' from 'Veinte Poemas De Amor' (1924) since I came across it elsewhere but there is wonderful poem after wonderful poem in here. Poems about love and loss. Poems about politics and poems about poetry. I really liked the selection from 'Odas Elementales' (1954), particularly 'Ode To a Yellow Bird'. I wish I could hear these poems read out loud, which I think is the way poetry should be heard. I'm going off now to find out if there are any out there on the internet.
I really enjoyed this collection. It repays the work put into it.
leftleaning's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
slow-paced
2.75
Pablo Neruda is a poet and leftist who’s words are powerful. But he is a rapist.
henren's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
stierwood's review against another edition
5.0
fue un poco afuera de mi nivel en español, pero me gustó lo que entendí. tenía tanta precisión sobre las palabras que eligió usar; cada palabra fue situada en su lugar perfecto. la manera la naturaleza y la revolución fue iluminada: la revolución significaba relación entre la sociedad, la gente y la tierra. especialmente disfruté el poema "el pueblo", que se centra alrededor de un hombre común que Neruda sigue tras siglos y sugiere que si fuera dueño de todo lo que manufacturó, sus muertes continuos no serían tan graves. no sería separada de la tierra, la ropa que crea, la comida que cultiva mientras no se alimenta.
spacestationtrustfund's review against another edition
3.0
The annoying thing about being a poet (yes I've been published and no I won't link you to it) is that people think you're some grand authority on the quality of it. I mean, I am, but the constant questions get annoying, okay? Everyone's always asking stuff like, "Is this poem good?" or "Why can't you just have a normal job?" or "What's the sexiest line of poetry ever?" and I usually give the same answer to the first two questions, but as for the third... well, I've got you on this one, actually. Here's the sexiest line of poetry ever:
This compilation of Neruda's poetry is a bilingual edition, translated by Ben Belitt. The translations were originally published in 1961 (this edition is from 1977), 12 years before Neruda's death. The selection is fine; Belitt's translation is more or less decent, and the addition of the original Spanish text is certainly a major benefit. I haven't read any newer translations of Neruda (W.S. Merwin's, my favourite, is from 1969), but I think I probably should.
Quiero hacer contigo lo que la primavera hace con los cerezos.It's from a poem by Pablo Neruda, and it makes my knees go weak every time. Why, you may be wondering, is Pablo Neruda such a sexy poet? And by "sexy" I don't mean the man himself was necessarily sexy, I mean that a poet is the sum total of their poetry, and Neruda's was an impressively attractive corpus. Anyway, one of the reasons he's so sexy is that he understood the three fundamental human emotions: horny, yearning, and sad. (There's overlap, of course—secondary emotions, like when you mix "horny" and "yearning" to get "romantic," or "horny" and "sad" to get "romantic," but those are the primary emotions.)
This compilation of Neruda's poetry is a bilingual edition, translated by Ben Belitt. The translations were originally published in 1961 (this edition is from 1977), 12 years before Neruda's death. The selection is fine; Belitt's translation is more or less decent, and the addition of the original Spanish text is certainly a major benefit. I haven't read any newer translations of Neruda (W.S. Merwin's, my favourite, is from 1969), but I think I probably should.
daustin_94's review against another edition
3.5
Favorites were:
- Twenty love poems - body of woman
- Twenty love poems - Learning into the Evenings
- Twenty love poems - I can write the saddest verses
- Oneness
- The Potter