As an interpreter, the mistranslations were glaring: at their best as watered-down aspirations to do justice by the originals. That said...

It’s a decent introduction to the bangers (e.g. “Walking Around,” for which you ought to find a better translation in public domain), as well as some underground gems (for which you CAN’T find better translations).

Neruda is an infamously prickly subject though: a man whose inimitable prose overwhelms the task of translation. You can’t blame the poor guy for being too good.

cozy and inspiring

lovely, but i feel like i'd need better spanish to be able to fully appreciate. consider this english translation:

The peasant in the field ate
his poor quota of bread,
he was alone, it was late,
he was surrounded by wheat,
but he had no more bread;
he ate it with grim teeth,
looking at it with hard eyes.

and then the original:

Su oscura ración de pan
comió el campesino en el campo,
estaba solo y era tarde,
estaba rodeado de trigo,
pero no tenía más pan,
se lo comió con dientes duros,
mirándolo con ojos duros.

el campesino en el campo ... what a phrase. "peasant in the field" doesn't do that justice.

fue un poco afuera de mi nivel en español, pero me gustó lo que entendí. tenía tanta precisión sobre las palabras que eligió usar; cada palabra fue situada en su lugar perfecto. la manera la naturaleza y la revolución fue iluminada: la revolución significaba relación entre la sociedad, la gente y la tierra. especialmente disfruté el poema "el pueblo", que se centra alrededor de un hombre común que Neruda sigue tras siglos y sugiere que si fuera dueño de todo lo que manufacturó, sus muertes continuos no serían tan graves. no sería separada de la tierra, la ropa que crea, la comida que cultiva mientras no se alimenta.

I plucked this book from the shelves of the Seattle Public Library. From there it accompanied me, in my backpack, to Peru - to the ancient city of Cusco. I carried this book four days through the Peruvian Andes along the sacred Inca Trail, all the way to the Heights of Machu Picchu. It is a good weight - not too heavy.

Can I give this six stars?

I had read very few of Neruda's poems before encountering this collection. He is now my favorite poet. I have read and re-read these diverse and gorgeous poems, and look forward to plunging deeper into his body of work.

Although I know little Spanish, I value being able to try to read it in the facing page translation format; sometimes I can begin to discern untranslatable sounds, rhythms, and multiple meanings.

Thank you, Mark Eisner, for this beautiful book.

Neruda should be heard in its native language not read in translation, but yah gotta start somewhere. These fifty poems were selected from 1924 to 1964 and "draws from the entire breadth ofNeruda's various styles, themes, and periods."

my friend gave me this book to read on the greyhound to florida. apparently she fucked the translator. i had this mexican sitting across from me read me one of the poems in spanish. i about creamed myself although i had no idea what he was saying.

I was thoroughly impressed with Neruda. He totally lived up to all the hype surrounding him. That being said, I had no idea what I was in for when I started reading this book. I thought he wrote mainly love poems, but even though he does have several love poems in this collection, he blew my mind with some of his more edgy political poems, and his surreal poems. This is a great collection of poems, published by city lights (so you know it's good), and well worth the read.

Found this book at the home of Pablo Neruda in Santiago, Chile. We interrupted our cycling in Argentina and took a bus over the Andes to meet friends from California. We all came from conservative backgrounds yet fell in love with Neruda's writings and philosophy. He was a voice of opposition to Dictator Augusto Pinochet. He fled Chile in the chaos of the brutal 1973 military coup
that took the life of his close friend, socialist President Salvador Allende.
I share this book with my friend Gale W.. We pass it back and forth and refresh ourselves with Pablo's Poetry annually.
Part of this review was taken from and article in Isla Negra written by Eva Vergara.

The present moment is the place a poet tries to occupy. Long dead or not yet born? Poetically unknowable and interchangeable. The place that can be illuminated is right now, where all the dead and yet to be born intersect. Or it may just be I love beautiful words and the images they conjure. No matter-it's time well experienced.

Challenge: Read a book translated from Spanish

Disclaimer: I did not read this in its original language, I read a translation in English.