Love Poems (New Directions Paperbook) [Paperback]

Pablo Neruda (Author), Donald D. Walsh (Translator)

Book Description

Series: New Directions Paperbook | Publication Date: January 17, 2008

Sensual, earthy love poems that formed the basis for the popular movie Il Postino, now in a beautiful gift book perfect for weddings, Valentine's Day, anniversaries, or just to say "I love you!"

Charged with sensuality and passion, Pablo Neruda's love poems are the most celebrated of the Nobel Prize winner's oeuvre, captivating readers with earthbound images and reveling in a fiery re-imagining of the world. Mostly written on the island paradise of Capri (the idyllic setting of the Oscar-winning movie Il Postino), Love Poems embraces the seascapes surrounding the poet and his love Matilde Urrutia, their waves and shores saturated with a new, yearning eroticism.

And when you appear
all the rivers sound
in my body, bells
shake the sky,
and a hymn fills the world.
        © 1973 by Neruda & Walsh

Editorial Reviews

Review

“One of the greatest major poets of the twentieth century. (The New York Times Book Review)”

“It is difficult to find an analogue for the sustained passion and gentleness communicated in this absolutely stunning apotheosis of the poetry of sexual love....Matilde Urrutia deserves to enter history in the company of Petrarch’s Laura and Dante’s Beatrice.(Library Journal)”

About the Author

Pablo Neruda was born in 1904 in the town of Parral in Chile. He received numerous prestigious awards for his work, including the International Peace Prize in 1950, the Lenin Peace Prize and the Stalin Peace Prize in 1953. In 1971, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Two years later he died of leukemia in Santiago, Chile.

Product Details

• Paperback: 64 pages
• Publisher: New Directions; Bilingual edition (January 17, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811217299
• ISBN-13: 978-0811217293
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #61,106 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #32 in Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > Spanish

More About the Author

Pablo Neruda is regarded as the greatest Latin American poet of the 20th century. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1971, his breadth of vision and wide range of themes are extraordinary, and his work continues to inspire new generations of writers.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Shame on you, New Directions, February 6, 2008

By 

Belle de Bellingham (in front of the sea) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Love Poems (New Directions Paperbook) (Paperback)

James Laughlin must be turning in his grave. New Directions, one of the greatest presses in 20th Century literary history, has sunk to the wrong directions now in the 21st: they are letting marketing triumph over literary ethics and literature itself: This "Love Poems" is just a slick deceptive cover of Neruda's single book, "The Captain's Verses," which in itself is a great book, an important book in Neruda's oeuvre, with a good translation by Donald Walsh-- but to be so deceptive and re-title it as a marketing gimmick?

I returned this book to Amazon after I found out what was underneath the false cover.

They say "in later editions, these verses became the most celebrated of the Noble Prize winner's oeuvre" In later editions? This is one edition, and it's not true that it "collects Neruda's most passionate verses." It collects some of them, but with The Captain's Verses there's a bunch of mediocre poems. Neruda had a high batting average, but not every poem he wrote was outstanding. Frankly, I'm peeved at ND for this gimmickry. The great press under Laughlin that took risks and brought us William Carlos Williams, Herman Hesse's Siddhartha, Lawrence Ferlinghetti-- you want a vanguard press that would never succumb to commercialism over the inherent principles of literature-- Ferlinghetti's City Lights-- If you want Neruda's love poetry, check out his The Essential Neruda: Selected Poems-- it truly is the essence of Pablo, with some of his best love poems. Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair: Dual Language Edition (Penguin Classics)is of course one of poetry's great classics, but it only represents the voice of Neruda in his twenties, without the broad scope and some of his best love lyrcis throughout one of the most prolific careers in the history of modern poetry. 100 Love Sonnets: Cien sonetos de amor (Texas Pan American Series) has some great Neruda love poems, but the majority, trully, aren't so great. And personally, along with others I know, feel that much of the inherent power of Neruda's poems in this book are lost in Tapscott's flat translations. If you do want The Captain's Verses, show New Directions that you can't judge--or change, for marketing reasons--a book by its cover, and get the original, The Captain's Verses

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I loved it, February 5, 2010

By 

Jennifer Fox (Arlington, VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Love Poems (New Directions Paperbook) (Paperback)

The other reviews aren't really about the poems in the book, which are great, and I like the design of the cover.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very romantic, June 22, 2010

By 

Moxie Dawn "Moxie Dawn" (Bear Creek, AL) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Love Poems (New Directions Paperbook) (Paperback)

I love that this book includes the original Spanish as well as the English translation on pages opposite each other. The book itself is very attractive, and a nice small size which is just right to keep in a purse or take on a trip. Could make a nice gift for a Spanish student, or for anyone overly romantic. The poems are quite passionate and evocative.