The Poetry of Pablo Neruda [Paperback]

Pablo Neruda (Author), Ilan Stavans (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 24, 2005

The most comprehensive English-language collection of work ever by "the greatest poet of the twentieth century--in any language" (Gabriel García Márquez)

"In his work a continent awakens to consciousness." So wrote the Swedish Academy in awarding the Nobel Prize to Pablo Neruda, the author of more than thirty-five books of poetry and one of Latin America's most revered writers, lionized during his lifetime as "the people's poet."

This selection of Neruda's poetry, the most comprehensive single volume available in English, presents nearly six hundred poems, scores of them in new and sometimes multiple translations, and many accompanied by the Spanish original. In his introduction, Ilan Stavans situates Neruda in his native milieu as well as in a contemporary English-language one, and a group of new translations by leading poets testifies to Neruda's enduring, vibrant legacy among English-speaking writers and readers today.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* The great Chilean poet Neruda, who received the Nobel Prize in 1971, two years before his death at age 69, acknowledged the twofold path of his poetry when he wrote, "I have a pact of love with beauty: / I have a pact of blood with my people." The earth's glory was the portal to truth for Neruda, and his nature poems are as ravishing in the splendor of their brilliant metaphors and the eroticism of their luscious detail as his renowned love poems. The poet's deep compassion for humankind, ardor for history, and attention to politics also inspired him to write incisively of conquistadors and tyrants, war and corporate imperialism. Passionate and prolific, Neruda himself was a force of nature, filling 35 books with poetry remarkable for its "simplicity, honesty, and conviction." Critic Ilan Stavans has created the first comprehensive English-language survey of Neruda's legendary oeuvre, judiciously selecting and expertly discussing 600 poems to create a genuinely invaluable and deeply pleasurable volume. Major works are presented in the original Spanish in this literary landmark, and the adept translators include such outstanding poets as Martin Espada, Jane Hirshfield, W. S. Merwin, and Mark Strand. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Pablo Neruda (1904-73), Chile's greatest poet, was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1971.

Ilan Stavans is Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College.

Product Details

• Paperback: 1040 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (March 24, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374529604
• ISBN-13: 978-0374529604
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #48,217 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #41 in Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > Latin American

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A missed opportunity. Una lastima., June 22, 2007

By 

sylviaplath79 (hotlanta, ga) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Poetry of Pablo Neruda (Paperback)

I was very excited for this book, hoping to fill in gaps of my Neruda collection. but after reading it I was frustrated and disappointed, not only in the quality of many of the translations and the lack of the Spanish there next to the English, but I feel the editor left out many important poems while putting in a lot of Neruda's weaker work. It was clunky. I found a review in the New York Book Review on the web by the poet Charles Simic which explains my thoughts perfectly:

"As one would expect from an undertaking aiming to be so comprehensive in scope, The Poetry of Pablo Neruda is an uneven book. There are first-rate translations by John Felstiner, Margaret Sayers Peden, Jack Schmitt, Greg Simon, Alastair Reid and a dozen others alongside many mediocre ones. I'm not competent to judge the accuracy of individual translations, but I can compare their quality as poems since there are previous renderings of the same poems which seem to me far superior to the ones we have here. For instance, neither of the two versions of "Walking Around" in this book are as good as the one I quoted by H.R. Hays, or the one W.S. Merwin did years ago. As their worst, the translations do not convey the stylistic range and verbal integunity of the original, making Neruda sound instead like a Chilean Carl Sandburg.

The choice of poems is also at times debatable. In order to make the book representative of all of Neruda's work, Stavans has left out some well-known poems and included plenty of questionable ones..."

A missed opportunity. Una lastima.

39 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Neruda's poems IN ENGLISH, September 9, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Poetry of Pablo Neruda (Hardcover)

While a beautiful anthology, I was very disappointed to find that it is not a complete bilingual edition. There is a sampling of *some* of the original poems in Spanish, but if you are looking for a side-by-side reading this is not it. In all fairness, Ilan Stavans presents a formidable compilation of Neruda's poems, and several translations of one poem are included for comparison (demonstrating the art of translation), but if you are looking for Neruda's poems in the original Spanish look elsewhere.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You will fall in love with the Chilean poet, November 25, 2003

By 

Javier Lopez (PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Poetry of Pablo Neruda (Hardcover)

I had never read Pablo Neruda's poetry before until my girlfriend gave me this book for my birthday. I loved it! The early romantic poems are amazing. I also loved the way the Chilean poet wrote about his own country and about poverty and repression in Latin America. The reader gets a sense of history through an artistic viewpoint. There are plenty of poems in this excellent collection and the translations are really good. I think the editor did a great job. I highly recommend it.