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A beautiful and broad collection of his poems, from love to workers' rights....
"On our earth, before writing was invented, before the printing press was invented, poetry flourished. That is why we know that poetry is like bread; it should be shared by all, by scholars and by peasants, by all our vast, incredible, extraordinary family of humanity." Pablo Neruda
I Like You When You're Quiet
I like it when you're quiet. It's as if you weren't here now,
and you heard me from a distance, and my voice
couldn't reach you.
It's as if your eyes had flown away from you, and as if
your mouth were closed because I leaned to kiss you.
Just as all living things are filled with my soul,
you emerge from all living things filled with the soul of
me.
It's as if, a butterfly in dreams, you were my soul,
and as if you were the soul's word, melancholy.
RH (7)
The title of "Essential Neruda" is apt in this collection not just for the beautiful and passionate love poetry that draws us initially to Neruda's works, but the love expanded into all of one's fellow men, especially the poor and working classes, and even those imprisoned. I wish that more poets took up the "Poet's Obligation".
To whomever is not listening to the sea
this Friday morning, to whomever is cooped up
in house or office, factory or woman
or street or mine or harsh prison cell:
to him I come, and, without speaking or looking,
I arrive and open the door of his prison,
and a vibration starts up, vague and insistent,
a great fragment of thunder sets in motion
the rumble of the planet and the foam,
the raucous rivers of the ocean flood,
the star vibrates swiftly in its corona,
and the sea is beating, dying and continuing.
AR 145
I have used the translation of "United Fruit" in my classes, and I think that one cannot teach the essence of Neruda without works like these. It is a work you will read and revisit again and again.
"On our earth, before writing was invented, before the printing press was invented, poetry flourished. That is why we know that poetry is like bread; it should be shared by all, by scholars and by peasants, by all our vast, incredible, extraordinary family of humanity." Pablo Neruda
I Like You When You're Quiet
I like it when you're quiet. It's as if you weren't here now,
and you heard me from a distance, and my voice
couldn't reach you.
It's as if your eyes had flown away from you, and as if
your mouth were closed because I leaned to kiss you.
Just as all living things are filled with my soul,
you emerge from all living things filled with the soul of
me.
It's as if, a butterfly in dreams, you were my soul,
and as if you were the soul's word, melancholy.
RH (7)
The title of "Essential Neruda" is apt in this collection not just for the beautiful and passionate love poetry that draws us initially to Neruda's works, but the love expanded into all of one's fellow men, especially the poor and working classes, and even those imprisoned. I wish that more poets took up the "Poet's Obligation".
To whomever is not listening to the sea
this Friday morning, to whomever is cooped up
in house or office, factory or woman
or street or mine or harsh prison cell:
to him I come, and, without speaking or looking,
I arrive and open the door of his prison,
and a vibration starts up, vague and insistent,
a great fragment of thunder sets in motion
the rumble of the planet and the foam,
the raucous rivers of the ocean flood,
the star vibrates swiftly in its corona,
and the sea is beating, dying and continuing.
AR 145
I have used the translation of "United Fruit" in my classes, and I think that one cannot teach the essence of Neruda without works like these. It is a work you will read and revisit again and again.
