Selected Poems: Pablo Neruda (English and Spanish Edition) [Paperback]

Pablo Neruda (Author), Ben Belitt (Editor, Translator), Luis Monguio (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 10, 1994

The winner of the 1971 Nobel Prize for Literature, Pablo Neruda is regarded as the greatest Latin American poet of the twentieth century. This bilingual edition makes available a major selection of his poems, both in the original Spanish and impressively rendered into English by “his most enduring translator, the poet Ben Belitt” (Robert Creeley).

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press; 1st Evergreen Ed edition (January 10, 1994)
• Language: English, Spanish
• ISBN-10: 0802151027
• ISBN-13: 978-0802151025
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #657,808 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Translating poetry is a tricky business., August 13, 2011

By 

OEJ - See all my reviews

This review is from: Selected Poems: Pablo Neruda (English and Spanish Edition) (Paperback)

This volume offers Neruda's poetry in Spanish and poet Ben Belitt's versions in English. Belitt is certainly an accomplished poet and translator, but to me it seems his work here changes Neruda's poetry for the worse. In particular, some of Neruda's poetry is written in strong, simple language but translated by Belitt in flowery, Latinate phrases.

"Esta viviendo el mar mientras la tierra
no tiene movimiento:
el grave otono
de la costa
cubre
con su muerte
la luz inmovil..."

could be strictly translated as

"The sea is living while the land
has no movement:
the grave autumn
of the coast
covers
with its death
the immobile light..."

However, Belitt chooses to translate it thus:

"Though the sea lives, the land
keeps immobile:
the coastland's
disconsolate autumns
that conceal
in their dying
the immutable light..."

While I respect Belitt's ideas, it seems to me that in this and other places his translation alters both the meaning and the feel of Neruda's work. "Disconsolate" is multi-syllabic and Latinate; "grave" is stronger, more literal, and mirrors the sound of Neruda's word. Neruda uses the phrase "no tiene movimiento" (has no movement) in one place, which Belitt translates there as "immobile" -- and yet where Neruda DOES use the word "inmovil" (the Spanish cognate corresponding to "immobile") Belitt inexplicably translates the word as "immutable".

Translation of poetry cannot preserve both the sound and the sense of the words, but in my opinion translation should strive to do as well by both as possible. I think Belitt overlays Neruda's poems with his own ideas of "poetic" language, to the detriment Neruda's strong, visceral Spanish.

Read the book for Neruda's Spanish, not for Belitt's English.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars terrible, June 29, 2011

By 

bad boy bill - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Selected Poems: Pablo Neruda (English and Spanish Edition) (Paperback)

a second year spanish student could do a better job....this guy is a butcher of the real meaning of these writings I would heartely recommend NOT BUYING THIS BOOK

1 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The wise romantic, June 9, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Selected Poems: Pablo Neruda (Paperback)

Pablo Neruda is an extremely distinct poet. He sort of glistens and beams outward from the line of poets. He is unique and reaches down toward the pit of his soul and grabs life, and love and delivers it all through his verse. We are priveleged to feast off the knowledge and genious of this man. He is a wise man with a hospitable nature. His emotions he records down on paper so that we may be of witness to a creation. His books are like bibles for lovers and those who seek knowledge of life and will. All of his books are complete genious and no one else can touch the hearts of mankind like Neruda has. God rest his soul.