Customer Reviews

Winter Garden (Spanish and English Edition)

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"Winter Garden" is one of several posthumously published volumes of poetry by Pablo Neruda, who died in 1973. This volume is a thoughtful, and frequently melancholy, collection by the great Chilean poet. William O'Daly has translated the poems into a smooth, graceful English. Although I don't believe that "Winter Garden" is quite in the same league as Neruda's greatest works, it is still a deeply moving work that is graced by passages of transcendent beauty.

In this collection of short poems Neruda writes about love, death, nature, and other topics. The natural world is a particularly rich presence: fields, apple trees, Andean snow, "the coasts of Chile," birds in flight, and more appear throughout the book.

Neruda is particularly moving when reflecting upon his lifelong quest to fulfil the poet's duty. It is heartbreaking when he laments, "I didn't have enough time or ink for everyone" and asks forgiveness "from anyone not here" (in the poem "For All to Know"). If you have been moved by the other great works of Neruda, or if you simply appreciate beautiful and emotionally rich poetry, you will want to read "Winter Garden."

Pablo Neruda has some pretty big achievements: Chile's ambassador to France, a Nobel Prize for Literature, and this particular title receiving Bloomsbury's Book of the Year. His life could never be described as dull...he's certainly not your stereotypical poet, pale and anguished, hidden away and perfecting his verse. Neruda was out and active in life. A Chilean Senator, various worldwide diplomatic assignments, plus a commentator on the activities in Chilean politics....he was never still.

This beautiful collection, translated by William O'Daly, was written shortly before his death. In fact, several manuscripts were found on his desk after he died of cancer in 1973. The translator notes in the introduction that Chile was always his beloved home, one that he thought of in any other location he found himself. This fits with what Neruda says in "Many Thanks": "Why do I live exiled from the shine of the oranges?"

He knew he was dying but never does he descend into self-pity or maudlin reveries. He acknowledges the big life he led, and in his final days he wants to simply meditate, focus on the simpler things (like a bird that approaches him as he sits outside alone), and retrieve the fondest of his memories.

In "Modestly", he uses a play on the words 'see' and 'sea':
Without doubt I praise the wild excellence,
the old-fashioned reverence, the natural see,
the economy of sublime truths that cling
to rock upon rock in succeeding generations,
like certain mollusks who conquered the sea.

He shows some humor in "For All to Know", when he acknowledges that he's sometimes asked why he didn't write about some significant events. His response:
"I didn't have enough time or ink for everyone....I didn't decipher it, I couldn't grasp each and every meaning: I ask forgiveness from anyone not here."

The most poignant poem of all is "In Memory of Manuel and Benjamin", two close friends of his, who unimaginably die on the same day by accidents. Neruda is genuinely perplexed at the loss: both were friends but they couldn't have been more different and while words were his voice, he finds it difficult to compose anything to make sense of it:

I loved my two contrary friends
who, with their silence, left me speechless
without knowing what to think or say.
So much searching under the skin
and so much walking among souls and roots
hour by hour so much pecking at paper.

Even if they didn't have the time to grow tired,
now quiet and finally solemn,
they enter, pressed together, the vast silence
that will slowly grind down their frames.

Tears were never invented for those men.


Given his impending death, late in life, it's easy to see how pained Neruda was. This collection features many personal thoughts, among them his eager wish not to be praised or to receive accolades in his late days. He wants to watch water through windows and see the sunrise. He's gracious and brave.

This book is part of a series by Copper Canyon Press of Neruda's works, translated by O'Daly from the Spanish (which is still featured in the left facing pages).

Pablo Neruda is by far, my favorite poet. I must admit that I have not read his more political poetry, I'm more a fan of the love stuff. But, this book includes a little bit of both. Mostly, however, it is a book about life and how he has lived it, what has touched him, aside from Matilde. Wonderful.

The poems in this volume were found in manuscript after the poet's death in 1973. For Neruda, whose poetry so often explodes with life through images of nature and man-made objects bathed in equatorial sunlight pouring from the page in a torrent of language, this volume feels more somber. The images of nature remain abundant, especially those of the sea surrounding his final home on Isla Negra. But the usual tone of a restless celebrant has been muted, replaced by a voice at once valedictory and resigned. Best of all the poet displays a humility that makes these poems moving and accessible.

The subjects of the poems range from meditations on the natural world during winter, the deaths of two activist friends, and the poet's responsiblities, to reflections on the loss of a beloved dog and the poet's own impending death. Neruda's tendencies to create lists and use surrealist techniques have been tempered and integrated into the poetry, keeping them from the wearisome quality of some earlier volumes. This may be a darker book than many volumes of Nedura's verse; but, in no way depressing, Neruda's vision of final things offers comfort. In fact, though it may seem cliched to write it, these poems are truly beautiful.

The edition offered here is bilingual, allowing you the chance to read Neruda directly if you know Spanish. Having no knowledge of Spanish I can only comment that O'Daly's translations are fluid and clear: an hour's steady reading, or meditations to be pondered more slowly over several days. The book itself is designed tastefully making the reading experience all the more enjoyable.