Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Penguin Classics (1993), Paperback, 96 pages
Description
First published in 1924, Veinte Poemas de Amor y una Cancion Desesperada remains among Neruda's most popular work. Daringly metaphorical, these poems are based upon his own private associations. Their sensuous use of nature symbolism to celebrate love and to express grief has not been surpassed in the literature of our century. This edition offers the original Spanish text, with masterly translations by W.S. Merwin on facing pages.
User reviews
LibraryThing member browner56
I do not read much poetry. So, when I do it almost always takes me awhile to find the right cadence and frame of mind to understand and appreciate the words on the page. Reading the work of Neruda is especially challenging because his poems are so full of imagery and allusions to the sky and the
I started reading “Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair” several months ago and I have now read every piece many times. More importantly, though, I have also thought about each of them and tried to feel what Neruda was really saying. To be honest, I’m still not totally sure what every poem means—I am an economist by training, so I am a little out of my depth here—but the power and raw emotion in these verses are unmistakable.
There is no denying that these are all fierce love poems. Some are about lost hope and broken dreams while others are pure celebrations of everything that all of us wish to find in our lives. I have been married to the same beautiful, wonderful woman for almost 30 years and many of these poems take me back to how I felt the first time our eyes met. This is a truly remarkable collection by an undisputed master and it is one that I will re-read for the rest of my life.
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sea.I started reading “Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair” several months ago and I have now read every piece many times. More importantly, though, I have also thought about each of them and tried to feel what Neruda was really saying. To be honest, I’m still not totally sure what every poem means—I am an economist by training, so I am a little out of my depth here—but the power and raw emotion in these verses are unmistakable.
There is no denying that these are all fierce love poems. Some are about lost hope and broken dreams while others are pure celebrations of everything that all of us wish to find in our lives. I have been married to the same beautiful, wonderful woman for almost 30 years and many of these poems take me back to how I felt the first time our eyes met. This is a truly remarkable collection by an undisputed master and it is one that I will re-read for the rest of my life.
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LibraryThing member tcw
I have a copy of Pablo Neruda reading these poems that is amazing. He recorded this reading late in life, an old man looking back on love. anyone who loves this should find his readings, it will break, mend, and rebuild your heart.
LibraryThing member isabelx
This is one of Pablo Neruda's earliest poetry collections, and probably his most famous. It was published in 1924, when he was 19 years old.
This edition contains the poems in the original Spanish, with an English translation by American poet and translator W.S. Merwin on the facing page.
Love and
Leaning into the afternoons I fling my sad nets
to that sea that beats on your marine eyes.
The birds of night peck at the first stars
that flash like my soul when I love you.
The night gallops on its shadowy mare
shedding blue tassels over the land.
This edition contains the poems in the original Spanish, with an English translation by American poet and translator W.S. Merwin on the facing page.
Love and
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eroticism is described using beautiful imagery of the sky, wind and water, twilight and night.Leaning into the afternoons I fling my sad nets
to that sea that beats on your marine eyes.
The birds of night peck at the first stars
that flash like my soul when I love you.
The night gallops on its shadowy mare
shedding blue tassels over the land.
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LibraryThing member szarka
While not as engaging as his later work, these poems by the 20-year-old Neruda are well worth a read. [2006-02-08]
LibraryThing member martyr13
Excellent short book of poems by Pablo Neruda. It has the poems in both English and Spanish.
LibraryThing member 1morechapter
Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair was written in 1924, when Chilean poet Pablo Neruda was only 19. It went on to sell millions of copies over the years and was translated into multiple languages. Neruda won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971 and died two years later in 1973.
Neruda’s
An interesting note — the cover of the book is Heart by Andy Warhol.
A portion of “Every Day You Play”:
Mis palabras llovieron sobre ti acariciándote.
Amé desde hace tiempo tu cuerpo de nácar soleado.
Hasta te creo dueña del universo.
Te traeré de las montañas flores alegres, copihues,
avellanas oscuras, y cestas silvestres de besos.
Quiero hacer contigo
lo que la primavera hace con los cerezos.
My words rained over you, stroking you.
A long time I have loved the sunned mother-of-pearl of your body.
I go so far as to think that you own the universe.
I will bring you happy flowers from the mountains, bluebells,
dark hazels, and rustic baskets of kisses.
I want to do with you
what spring does with the cherry trees.
1924, 80 pp.
4/5
Neruda’s
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poems definitely have a sensuousness about them, and they also evoke the poet’s passion and pain. I only wish I knew Spanish so I could understand the poems in their original. Poetry must be one of the most difficult of writings to translate, but this dual language edition was penned by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet W.S. Mervin.An interesting note — the cover of the book is Heart by Andy Warhol.
A portion of “Every Day You Play”:
Mis palabras llovieron sobre ti acariciándote.
Amé desde hace tiempo tu cuerpo de nácar soleado.
Hasta te creo dueña del universo.
Te traeré de las montañas flores alegres, copihues,
avellanas oscuras, y cestas silvestres de besos.
Quiero hacer contigo
lo que la primavera hace con los cerezos.
My words rained over you, stroking you.
A long time I have loved the sunned mother-of-pearl of your body.
I go so far as to think that you own the universe.
I will bring you happy flowers from the mountains, bluebells,
dark hazels, and rustic baskets of kisses.
I want to do with you
what spring does with the cherry trees.
1924, 80 pp.
4/5
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LibraryThing member BetaCummins
Beautiful work. Neruda masters those words of love, in a free flowing fashion. Pouring on to the pages the embedded images of his women in his flesh, heart and mind.
I recommend the original in Spanish. Read it and you just might find yourself in love with your own woman, all over again.
I recommend the original in Spanish. Read it and you just might find yourself in love with your own woman, all over again.
LibraryThing member bookworm_naida
Pablo Neruda's Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair is a wonderful collection of beautiful poems that will break your heart, but in a good way. Know what I mean?
These are poems I'll be reading time and time again. I also enjoyed reading the poems in Spanish.
These are poems I'll be reading time and time again. I also enjoyed reading the poems in Spanish.
LibraryThing member sadiebooks
"everyday you play" is definitely my favorite. all in all though a awesome collection and was the work that turned me on to neruda in the first place.
LibraryThing member sadiebooks
"everyday you play" is definitely my favorite. all in all though a awesome collection and was the work that turned me on to neruda in the first place.
LibraryThing member sadiebooks
"everyday you play" is definitely my favorite. all in all though a awesome collection and was the work that turned me on to neruda in the first place.
LibraryThing member stilton
I cannot speak for Neruda's originals (my Spanish is nowhere near good enough), but W.S. Merwin's English translations seem to me awful maudlin nonsense (perhaps I'm emotionally incomplete). Maybe I'll change my mind one day, but right now... no, not for me.
LibraryThing member libbromus
These poems are alive. They are raw, full of heart, sensual, and electric. Wow. Just wow.
LibraryThing member bennbell
Splendid book of poetry!
LibraryThing member VirginiaGill
While Neruda is unlikely to ever rank among my favorite poets I'm very glad to have read this collection. Some of his phrases just make me stop in my tracks and breathe slowly as the images they invoke slip gently across my mind. Have no doubt I'll return to these poems again and again.
LibraryThing member ytchio
I absolutely love Pablo Neruda. I read this particular work when I was young, and I revisit his poems from time to time. They enrich my soul. Pablo Neruda is actually the pen name of Neftali Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. He actually legally ychanged his original name to his pen name. He holds a very
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well-deserved Nobel award. Show Less
LibraryThing member HeidiSV
I choose Pablo Neruda's work out of a recommendation by the Teen Librarian at Farmington Libraries. While some of the poems in this book were excellent and I really enjoyed reading them and trying to piece together the meaning, others left something to be desired. The book had Spanish on the left
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and the English translation on the right. From my lack of Spanish knowledge but knowledge of french, I could attempt to read it in Spanish and found it flowed better in Spanish which was to be expected. While the title was very literal, the rest of the book was not. Unlike the Pain Tree with its straightforward style, this was the FURTHEST thing from straightforward. Which made reading each poem difficult. That is why for this book I had to read it out loud and confer with other people about the meaning behind each line and how it related to the poem as a whole. It was the reason why this particular one took me longer than the rest of the poetry books that I read. Despite that, I would argue this was my favorite of the three. Reading the poem out loud provided a level of understanding but also a level of engagement. Show Less
LibraryThing member thorold
Neruda's most famous collection, published when he was nineteen. Sometimes beautiful and surprising, sometimes loud and bombastic. The poet still seems to be at the stage in his life when love is essentially the same thing as football, a competition between young men (involving a lot of shouting
But the images are always breathtaking, even though Neruda draws them from a fairly narrow range (maritime stuff like waves, nets, harbours, anchors, lighthouses, seagulls and mooring lines; bees and butterflies; ears of corn; weather).
I suspect that these are poems that grow on you when you read them aloud just for the sound of the words, without thinking too much about what they are supposed to mean.
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and posturing) that women are meant to watch from the sidelines. The women in these poems don't speak — he prefers them when they are silent: "Me gustas quando callas porque estás como ausente" — and they don't seem to exist much except as sets of body parts, not always flatteringly described ("Se parecen tus senos a los caracoles blancos"). There's no way of knowing whether the poems are about one specific woman, a series of women, or a completely abstract female figure. Possibly the last of these, given how often he talks about dolls and statues. But the images are always breathtaking, even though Neruda draws them from a fairly narrow range (maritime stuff like waves, nets, harbours, anchors, lighthouses, seagulls and mooring lines; bees and butterflies; ears of corn; weather).
I suspect that these are poems that grow on you when you read them aloud just for the sound of the words, without thinking too much about what they are supposed to mean.
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LibraryThing member jemmatcf
I'm not a huge fan of poetry but I enjoyed the design a lot (except the font choice) and the poems were interesting too. There are references to despair or at least sadness in each of these poems, despite the title. Each poem is printed in English on the right and the original Spanish on the left.
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I know enough Spanish to enjoy reading the originals, but with this kind of poetic language I would have been lost without the English side-by-side with the Spanish. I took my time reading it, using each poem and it's translation as a reset of my brain between chapters of a dense text I was reading. The language is flowing, if often mysterious. He seems to mentally live in the twilght of day, of life, Regarding the very pretty layout, the Spanish was printed in a font where some lower-case letters were hard to tell apart and that was not helpful given my incomplete knowledge of the language. For instance, the lower-case b and h were extremely close in appearance. In any case, as a non-poetry fan who is just open to reading anything, I recommend this collection for all readers. Show Less
Subjects
Language
Original publication date
1924
Physical description
96 p.; 7.73 inches
ISBN
0140186484 / 9780140186482