The Poetry of Pablo Neruda

The most comprehensive English-language collection of work ever by "the greatest poet of the twentieth century--in any language" (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
"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.
Pablo Neruda (1904-73) shared the World Peace Prize with Paul Robeson and Pablo Picasso in 1950, and received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1971.
Ilan Stavans is Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College. His books include "The Hispanic Condition," "On Borrowed Words," and "The Scroll and the Cross."
Awarded Chile's Presidential Medal
A "San Francisco Chronicle" Best Book
In "The Poetry of Pablo Neruda" we have the most comprehensive English-language collection of his verse ever published.
"In his work a continent awakens to consciousness." So wrote the Swedish Academy in awarding the Nobel Prize in Literature to Neruda, author of more than thirty-five books of poetry and one of Latin America's most revered writers and political figures--a loyal member of the Communist party, a lifelong diplomat and onetime senator, a man lionized during much of his lifetime as "the people's poet."
Born Neftali Ricardo Reyes Basoalto in Parral, Chile, Neruda adopted his pen name in fear of his family's disapproval (and in homage to the Czech poet Jan Neruda), yet by the age of twenty-five he was already famous for" Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair," the book which perhaps remains his most beloved. Over the next fifty years, a seemingly boundless metaphorical language linked this poet's romantic fantasies to a fierce, highly sensitive moral and political compass, as exemplified in books such as "Canto General." The earlier stylistic experimentation of "Residence on Earth" gave way to the later ideological dissent of "Songs of Protest," and Neruda increasingly became an adamant, self-styled champion of the dignity of ordinary men and women.
Edited and with an introduction by the renowned scholar, author, and translator Ilan Stavans, "The Poetry of Pablo Neruda" is the largest, most inclusive single-volume collection of this prolific poet's work in English. Here, the finest translations of nearly six hundred of his poems are collected--classic renderings alongside specially commissioned new translations--all of which attest to Neruda's still-resounding presence in American letters. Awarded Chile's Presidential Medal
A "San Francisco Chronicle" Best Book "The greatest poet of the twentieth century--in any language."--Gabriel Garcia Marquez "Not since Whitman has a poet of genius embraced a whole continent, as Neruda has his, or spoken so directly to the nonpoets among his readers."--Selden Rodman
"Ambitious . . . Meticulously edited . . . This] selection targets the serious reader . . . Stavans deserves high praise for the volume he has assembled. Thanks to his judicious selections, readers can now appreciate the fabulous evolution of Neruda's career without repetition or any posthumous touching up. Inside this book] we find a funhouse mirror of Neruda's personas. There is indeed that melancholy wanderer, mooning at the heavens. But there is also Neruda the ardent surrealist, and there's Neruda the antiwar activist and Neruda the fervent nationalist. In the late 1940s, we find Neruda the lonely exile, and, finally, toward the end of his long career, there is Neruda the organic, earth-toned metaphysical seeker."--John Freeman, "San Francisco Chronicle"
""The Poetry of Pablo Neruda" advertises itself as 'the most comprehensive single volume available in English'--and it certainly is."--Charles Simic, "The New York Review of Books"
"The greatest poet of the twentieth century--in any language."--Gabriel Garcia Marquez " This book provides] an opportunity to reflect on the poet's achievement and his canonical position."--Christopher Winks, "The Harvard Review"
"This hefty anthology offers 600 chronologically arranged poems from the work of Chilean Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda, perhaps the most extensively translated poet in the world. Rejecting the abstract and evasive poetry of the 19th century, Neruda was inspired by humble things like socks and the smell of firewood and wrote fiercely of social injustice, celebrating heroes such as Fray Bartolome de las Casas and Abraham Lincoln and damning oppressors (e.g., 'General Franco in Hell'). Editor Stavans (who teaches Latin American studies at Amherst College) draws from a pool of 36 translators, including Angel Flores (who first translated Neruda into English in 1944), Robert Bly, John Felstiner, Galway Kinnell, Nathaniel Tarn, Alastair Reid, James Wright, and Clark Zlotchew. Consistent with Neruda's enthusiasm for multiple translations of his poems, Stavans offers more than one version of some poems, although the Spanish originals are only occasionally provided. If, as Stavans believes, 30 years after his death the time is right for a reappraisal of Neruda, then this volume is just what's needed to jump-start the process. Highly recommended for all libraries."--"Library Journal"
Table of Contents
Introduction
"from "Book of Twilight/
Crepusculario (1920-1923)
FARWELL AND SOBS
LOVE
MARURI'S TWILIGHTS
If God Is in