Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair: Dual Language Edition (Penguin Classics)
Average Rating: out of 39 Reviews
Price: $13.00
Sale: $7.17
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
EAN (European Article Number): 9780143039969
Number of Items: 1
Binding: Paperback
Author: Pablo Neruda
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Dewey Decimal Number: 808
Publication Date: 2006-12-26
Reading Level: 80
Description: The Nobel Prize–winning poet’s most popular work
When it appeared in 1924, this work launched into the international spotlight a young and unknown poet whose writings would ignite a generation. W. S. Merwin’s incomparable translation faces the original Spanish text. Now in a black-spine Classics edition, this book stands as an essential collection that continues to inspire lovers and poets around the world.
Details: "Clasping my arms like a climbing plant
the leaves garnered your voice, that was slow and at peace.
Bonfire of awe in which my thirst was burning.
Sweet blue hyacinth twisted over my soul."
(from "I Remember You As You Were")
After watching "The Postman" I became interested in purchasing my first book of Pablo Neruda's poems. Needless to say I went into the experience with very high expectations.
The poems are awash with nature images and much less erotic than I expected. Most seem more romantic and at times captivating. They do demand your full attention as they present vivid images one after the other and reading the poems more slowly has many advantages. At times I was surprised by their complexity.
"The moon turns its clockwork dream.
The biggest stars look at me with your eyes.
And as I love you, the pines in the wind
want to sing your name with their leaves of wire."
(from "Here I Love You")
Throughout the book there are illustrations by Pablo Picasso. They don't really seem to mirror the meanings in the poems and yet they seem to express the language of the body.
I expected the poems to be less veiled in mystery and more infused with images of erotic love. Still these poems can be enjoyed for their passionate intimacy and natural sensuality.
~The Rebecca Review
Review Summary: Wonderful!
Date: 2007-01-17
Details: This book was very beneficial as I translated some of the poems myself. It allowed me to compare differences in the two translations and choose which was most accurate.
Review Summary: Love poems for all of us
Date: 2007-01-09
Details: Our Spanish is weak, mine much weaker than hers, but the language speaks, the tone of the language sings, as we sit on a beach and share these beatiful poems, in words we understand, and sounds we listen to.
Review Summary: One of my favorite writers
Date: 2006-08-15
Details: In this duel language edition, the voice is soft, sincere, and refreshing. His language borders on a passion that seems to rouse the senses like skydiving, or waiting for first rain. I recommend this book and all his books to the poetry reader.
Review Summary: the most romantic book of love poems ever written
Date: 2006-04-06
Details: perhaps this is the most romantic and most beautiful book of love poems ever written. every word, every stanza is so easily read, so quickly understood, like an arrow to the heard. give this gift to your lover and they will never forget it.
out of 39 Reviews
