100 Love Sonnets [Paperback]

Pablo Neruda (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 222 pages
• Publisher: University Of Texas Press
• ASIN: B0013E7Z46
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (59 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,238,358 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars tragically misleading, March 21, 2000

By 

gustavo escobedo (Bangkok, Thailand.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 100 Love Sonnets: Cien sonetos de amor (Texas Pan American Series) (English and Spanish Edition) (Paperback)

I hate to rain on everyone's parade but Stephen Tapscott's translation of Pablo Neruda's evocative and beautiful poetry is crass, misleading and patronizing. It is an insult to the memory of a great poet and a disgrace to translation in general. I have read the collection several times and it angers me each time to see what this man has done to poetry that is subtle as it is open ended. Every single poem in this collection is manipulated my Mr. Tapscott. He constantly replaces words when perfect English equivalents are available. He changes the tenses in which the poems are written and inserts his own concepts when he deems necessary. Worst of all he "explains" the poems in his translation. Time and again Tapscott fails to see the beauty of an ambiguity intended by Neruda and procedes to write phrases that are one dimensional and often fail to convey even the basic core of the work. As to the sound and rythm of the collection, Tapscott goes out of his way to destroy the structure of the poems and their gentle flow. It is a shame that English speakers interested in Pablo Neruda's poetry have only this translation by which to judge his genius. Please save your money and wait for a translation that better represents these great poems.

54 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unparalleled Beauty, June 8, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: 100 Love Sonnets: Cien sonetos de amor (Texas Pan American Series) (English and Spanish Edition) (Paperback)

"100 Love Sonnets" was my introduction to Pablo Neruda, and I have to say these are some of the most beautiful poems that I have ever read. I'm not a huge poetry fan, and so I was amazed that I read all the poems all the way through in one sitting. Anyone who has ever loved someone will feel these poems flow though their soul. Anyone who has ever tried to write a love poem, this is the standard by which they are judged.

The sonnets are presented in the original Spanish, and translated to English by Stephen Tapscott. Tapscott should be commended for translating the poems without them losing any power or beauty.

Reading these poems isn't enough, they need to be read aloud. The Spanish (even with a mangled accent like mine) is very lyrical and beautiful. I've found that reading the English, so I understand the poem better, helps me to read the Spanish with the proper passion they deserve.

If you're even the slightest bit romantic, this book should be in your home. I don't own any other poetry books, but I will never lose my copy of "100 Love Sonnets"

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful and Brilliant, April 23, 2001

By 

John (United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 100 Love Sonnets: Cien sonetos de amor (Texas Pan American Series) (English and Spanish Edition) (Paperback)

I do not read Spanish, and so, I cannot tell the quality of Stephen Tapscott's translation. I cannot tell how much was lost from Neruda's original poems in their power. I cannot tell what was lost in their linguistics. I can say that each poem in this collection is absolutely beautiful. I have not been a great poetry reader for very long (I'm eighteen), but in the last year, I have read thousands of poems. Pablo Neruda's poems in translation are absolutely my favorites. These one hundred sonnets rank as highly with the other gorgeous translations that I have read. The poems in this book are all very freely written sonnets. Almost all that survives from the sonnets original form is the number of lines. Each poem is powerful, and Neruda is marvelous at pouring himself and his feelings for his wife into each. My favorite poem is certainly the seventeenth. Fans of Neruda's other poetry should enjoy this edition (as should fans of any great poetry), and I do hope that translations continue to be printed in the hope that Neruda will be done justice. I also hope that I can one day learn Spanish well enough to understand these sonnets in their original language.