Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair: Dual-Language Edition (Penguin Classics) (Spanish Edition) [Paperback]

I have always been thankful that English is my first language, for I would hate to read a translated version of a Shakespeare play. Neruda (and perhaps Gabriel Garcia Marquez) is one writer that makes me wish I could read Spanish, for as amazing as his poems are in the translated English (and the are amazing), they must be pure and unabashed magic in their original language. Neruda is able to write on emotions that we occassionaly feel, and often long about, but can seldom work into spoken (yet alone written) words. By far, my favorite in this book of poems is Number 20, which has come to be known as "Tonight I Can Write..." Only after losing the love that I thought would last forever did the words "Love is so short, forgetting so long" sincerely ring true. Neruda's poems in general are amazing, and his ability to capture human emotions is remarkable.

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From Publishers Weekly
This collection of poems, first published by Neruda at the age of 19 in 1924, caused something of a scandal because of its frank and intense sexuality: "I have gone marking the atlas of your body / with crosses of fire. / My mouth went across: a spider, trying to hide. / In you, behind you, timid, driven by thirst." It later became one of Neruda's best-loved works, selling two million copies by the 1960s. Why? With image after arresting image, Neruda charts the oceanic movements of passion, repeatedly summoning imagery of the sea and weather: "On all sides I see your waist of fog, / and your silence hunts down my afflicted hours; / my kisses anchor, and my moist desire nests / in you with your arms of transparent stone." As irresistible as the sea, love is engulfing ("You swallowed everything, like distance. / . . . In you everything sank!"), but also departs as mysteriously as it arrived, leaving the poet's heart a "pit of debris, fierce cave of the shipwrecked." These unabashedly romantic poems, wonderfully translated by Merwin, are illustrated in this edition by the paintings of Jan Thompson Dicks with aptly Fauvist tones and iconic formality.

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Review
Verse collection by Pablo Neruda, published in 1924 as Veinte poemas de amor y una cancion desesperada. The book immediately established the author's reputation and became one of the most widely read collections of poetry written in Spanish. The 20 love poems of the title poignantly describe remembered affairs with two women: a girl from the poet's native town of Temuco and a classmate at the University of Santiago. The collection begins with intensity, describing sensual passion that slackens into melancholy and detachment in the later verses. The closing poem, "A Song of Despair," hopelessly dwells upon bitter emotions. -- The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Language Notes
Text: English, Spanish --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author
Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) has been called by Gabriel García Márquez “the greatest poet of the 20th century in any language.” An outspoken communist, he served briefly in the Chilean congress and in 1971 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
W. S. Merwin has received numerous awards for his poetry, including the Pulitzer Prize. He has translated widely from many languages.
Cristina García is the author of three novels, including Dreaming in Cuban, which was a finalist for the National Book Award.

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