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savored this till the last verse. glad i did, because this was damn near flawless. each poem spilled over the next a heightened grasp (and lack thereof) of love, lust, passion, and pain. bravo. (number 14 was a favorite of mine)
neruda was a rapist and in light of that fact i no longer want to read about how a woman is like the world in its activity of surrender, don't want to read about his wild laborer's body turning her over and making a son pop up out of the depths of the earth, nor about how he forged woman as a weapon, a woman with absent eyes, a slow and sad voice. don't want to read about his limitless desire and his infinite pain... el pobrecito.and that's just the first poem. el más grande poeta del siglo XX,
If you've ever needed a reason to take up/learn Spanish, being able to read Neruda's _Veinte poemas y una cancion..._ --not in translation-- should be incentive enough. Neruda's sensuous, and often melancholy, lyrics are subtle, but profoundly evocative. I also love his tendency to affirm/generate through negation. The English translation is okay, but these poems really should be read in their native Spanish.
First poetry collection of the year: I thought it was about time I read Neruda. He has a reputation for sensuality, which I guess is why I was surprised by how complex and sophisticated these are. He did a fantastic job weaving themes and motifs through the entire collection so that the whole thing feels like one giant poem itself. It stretched my Spanish, which I’ve let get rusty, in such a good, electric way.
A masterpiece of poetry, an awesome introspective journey to the nature of love itself and all kind of feelings that come along natural and painfull, plain and beautiful.
Poetry has always been a big challenge for me and it took me decades to finally read this book. Neruda’s magic is to make the reader feel the way he did even if one cannot make sense of anything. The sequence of the poems is a crescendo of happiness, sadness, anguish, anger, all emotions intertwined and fighting each other. I dare anyone to not to cry on the last poem, the rude awakening of life happening.
If you know spanish, do yourself a favor and listen the audiobook by Joan Mora. It's available in youtube and it's only one hour but you spend all of it sobbing. If you want to learn spanish/want to practice I greatly recommend it as well since it's spoken with a deep and slow voice perfect for poetry and for pronouncing perfectly every wordI swear to God I wanted to read this for the longest time and my anticipation couldn't have been better placed. NOW I AM GONNA GO TO SOB A LITTLE MORE
I love you as certain dark things are loved, secretly between the shadow and the soul <3Un hermoso conjunto de poesías que no había entendido correctamente hasta ahora.
3.5 - 4 stars.
He is one of the best poets in Spanish Literature and this tiny but mighty book without a doubt proves he is one of the best. This is a collection of love poems and they will make you fall in love with them.
Its crazy how talented Neruda was, writing this at age 19. These verses are not just about love, but other themes: respect, devotion, sacrifice, hate, suffering, human flaws and virtues. One thing I like about poetry is the way you can construct meaning from a combination of words that otherwise would not make sense in a novel. This one will stimulate your imagination. That is what Neruda had, vast imagination.I read it in Spanish. I am not sure if translations will do it justice. I recommend it...
Learning the lenguage of love?
POEMA 20..... SCATTER MY ASHES IN THE OCEAN!!!!!
“ya no la quiero, es cierto, pero tal vez la quiero.es tan corto el amor y es tan largo el olvido.”i actually read this a while back and didn’t really like it. the big difference between that time and this time was that this time i read it in spanish and let me tell you that this hit way harder in spanish than in english. it felt rawer and more genuine. it made me relate to it way more. i would recommend reading this just for poem 20 which is honestly a work of art
The Morning is FullThe morning is full of stormin the heart of summer.W. S. Merwin translates Pablo Neruda in this sweet read. And if you like Spanish, check out Joan Mora in YouTube reciting all veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada.
I don't know how to rate poetry so I won't even try it.I liked the poems, some of them more, some of them less. But, overall, I was amazed by the intensity of it, by the passion conveyed by the words. And not merely by the words, but by the images, the colours and sounds that the metaphors (and other poetic resources) create in your mind. I was astounded when I learnt that Neruda wrote that when he was 19! Anyway, it's a classic, and, for those who love poetry, you'll love it for sure!
Date reading: 2017
Okay so my version didn't have the sonnets. So it was 37 pages and it took me about a week and a half. I learned lots of new words (had to have translate open while I read) because the language was strange. To be honest, I don't know why I chose to read poems in Spanish when I'm not even the biggest poetry fan when I understand the literal words on the page. But, as usual, I'm glad I read it. It exposed me to a genre that was previously not familiar with, so points for that.
I'm in love with this book, it is simple but rather very emotional and you can see some of the most famous poems of the author.