Odes to Common Things, Bilingual Edition [Hardcover]

Pablo Neruda (Author), Ferris Cook (Author), Ken Krabbenhoft (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1994

A bilingual collection of 25 newly translated odes by the century's greatest Spanish-language poet, each accompanied by a pair of exquisite pencil drawings. From bread and soap to a bed and a box of tea, the "odes to common things" collected here conjure up the essence of their subjects clearly and wondrously. 50 b&w illustrations.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, Spanish (translation)
Original Language: Spanish

About the Author

The Chilean poet Pablo Neruda (1904-1973) is among the best-known, most widely read poets of the 20th century. Neruda won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1971. More than 35 volumes of his work are presently available in English. Ferris Cook created Remembered Gardens for Bulfinch Press (Spring 1993). She is an illustrator, editor, and writer with two other garden volumes to her credit. Ken Krabbenhoft is Professor of Spanish and Portuguese Literature at NYUniversity (and Ferris Cook's husband).

Product Details

• Hardcover: 152 pages
• Publisher: Bulfinch; Bilingual edition (May 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0821220802
• ISBN-13: 978-0821220801
• Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 0.7 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #232,746 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful poetry, Beautiful Illustrations, July 8, 1998

By 

Laurie Gatlin (Long Beach, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Odes to Common Things, Bilingual Edition (Hardcover)

This is a beautifully illustrated collection of Pablo Neruda's Odes to Common Things. As a high school art teacher, this is one of the books I use to teach illustration, both by using the book's illustrations as a good example, and through the poetry, to have students see the variety of imagery available even in things they see every day. In particular, Ode to a Cat and Ode to Scissors are both playful and haunting.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Common Things Turned Uncommonly Beautiful, January 16, 2003

By 

Ros Saciuk (In the heart of rattlesnake gulch, in the dust covered expanse of the great Mojave desert) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Odes to Common Things, Bilingual Edition (Hardcover)

The Odes to Common Things was written toward the end of Neruda's life, in a voice steeped in the wisdom of a life experienced in the greatest joys and horrors of the 20th century. When Neruda writes about a table, a chair, flowers, socks, or soap, these common things become more than everyday banal objects: they are transformed and elevated into metaphors, vehicles for the greater questions that haunt our lives, capturing the often overlooked beauty of everyday life, of the little things that we seem to remember only in our twilight.

Ken Krabbenhoft's translation is good, but often, as with other translations, it fails to capture the true spirit of the Spanish words (but not at his fault). It is for this reason I gave it four instead of five stars.

My personal favorites include: "Oda al Pan" (Ode to Bread); "Oda a la Cama" (Ode to the Bed); and, "Oda al Violin de California" (Ode to a Violin in California), perhaps because Neruda's inspiration may have come from walking the same shores that I too walk in barefoot pleasure.
--ross saciuk

20 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Whatever Happened to Great Poetry?, January 11, 2001

By 

Terri Fawn Howard (Plano, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Odes to Common Things, Bilingual Edition (Hardcover)

Pablo Neruda--the last great poet. Every time I pick up one of his books I'm startled back in to coherence. "Odes to Common Things" is no exception. His elevation of what you and I take for granted to entities of self-completeness is nothing short of brilliance. When I see a chair all I see is a place to plant my weary body, but with Neruda the chair is transformed into something wildly exotic, transcendent and magical. "Ode to the dictionary" will make you regret not using yours more. A tell-tale sign of reading profound poetry is an encroaching sense of self-disgust. I rarely fail to acheive this feeling when reading Neruda. So if you're in the mood to be simutaneously elevated and degraded, read "Ode to Common Things", a book that is anything but common.