Beautiful work. This is the kind of poetry that makes people who hate poetry decide that they might actually love it.

And this poem:

Well, now
If little by little you stop loving me
I shall stop loving you
Little by little
If suddenly you forget me
Do not look for me
For I shall already have forgotten you

If you think it long and mad the wind of banners that passes through my life
And you decide to leave me at the shore of the heart where I have roots
Remember
That on that day, at that hour, I shall lift my arms
And my roots will set off to seek another land.



is quite possibly the only reason I didn't jump off of a bridge 3 years ago.

So, thank you, Pablo.

Relentlessly stunning. A collection to savour, to love, and to remember.

Saya memberi lima bintang untuk puisi-puisi Pablo Neruda. Alasannya sederhana saja. Pertama, sajak Neruda memang indah dan orisinal, bahkan kendati saya hanya bisa membacanya dalam versi terjemahan Inggris. Kedua, saya selalu memberi lima bintang untuk karya-karya yang tak tergantikan, baik karena ia lahir berkat faktor sejarah (yang tak mungkin terulang) maupun karena kekhasan personal penulisnya yg amat menonjol dan orisinal, atau karena keduanya. Kumpulan surat Kartini "Habis Gelap Terbitlah Terang" adalah contoh karya yang tak tergantikan karena faktor sejarah yg tak mungkin terulang. Barangkali ada banyak perempuan lain yg bisa menulis surat lebih elok ketimbang Kartini. Tapi mereka tak mungkin mengulang momen sejarahnya--kurun waktu di mana surat-surat itu ditulis pada tempat dan waktu yg tepat sehingga, ketika kumpulan surat itu diterbitkan di kemudian hari, ia menjadi sumber inspirasi, memiliki daya gugah dan kekuatan sejarah. Sajak-sajak Neruda, pada sisi lain, bagi saya memiliki aura personal yg kuat, seakan-akan sajak-sajak seperti itu tak mungkin ditulis oleh orang lain kecuali dia. Sajak-sajak Chairil Anwar, atau Sapardi Djoko Damono, pun menunjukkan orisinalitas seperti itu.

সব দেশের কবিতাতেই বোধহয় "স্নানের জলে বাষ্পে মাখো জল" কিসিমের ফাঁকা আওয়াজ থাকে। নেরুদার, বিশেষতঃ রেসিদেন্সিয়া এন লা তিয়েরার সময়ে, এই ধরনের কাজ একটু বেশি। এর উপর আছে আমাপোলা আর সেরেসোর, মানে পপি গাছ আর চেরী ফুলের আলাপ। এইগুলি হচ্ছে বিদেশীদের আনন্দ ভৈরবী পড়তে দেয়ার মতো, বরষাপীড়িত ফুল আপনি স্পেনীয় নারীরে কীভাবে বোঝাবেন!

নেরুদারে ভালো লাগে, তার স্পেন কেমন ছিলো কবিতাটার জন্য। কেউ যদি লিখে দিয়ে যাইতো, কেমন ছিলো বাংলাদেশ। চারদিকে আহাজারি, চারদিকে বিপদ। আমি ছুটি চাইছিলাম খোদা।

A long and varied career passes through the pages of this book in Neruda's selections with facing translations by four different authors. As I don't read Spanish at a level to really appreciate the nuances of poetry, I can't say that the poems are of highly variable quality. I can say that their appeal to me was highly variable, and the translations seemed to be variable as well.
The early poetry is somewhat surreal and filled with women who are considered as a collection of body parts. I was left to ponder the question: if a poem does not make a lot of syntactical sense, and primarily existed for its sonic effect, is it worthwhile to translate it? When the English comes across as vaguely nonsense I think I should rather listen to the Spanish. I took particular issue with the translations of the editor, Nathaniel Tarn, in this part of the book. At one point there was a line that in the Spanish contained the words for both "light" and "void," which seems to me an allusion to Genesis. "Light" did not appear in the English translation, destroying the allusion.
The last book I read, Rome and the Mysterious Orient: Three Plays by Plautus, relied a bit too much on explanatory notes to justify and contextualize its translation. But perhaps this book would do better with a few notes.
Anyway, time passes and eventually Neruda grew up into a poet who could take on grand themes as well as personal. His early Fifties poems on America are really interesting and the selections from Odas Elementales are full of perception and humor. Reading this was a useful reminder that the experience of dipping into a poet via a "selected" or "collected" edition is totally alien to the experience of reading one of the books that they originally published.

Love, love, love.

I have always loved his work. This is a perfect collection.

I will caveat my review with the statement that I am not a fan of poetry. I am open to reading different poets to see if I like any but so far, none float my boat. Sorry Whitman, Elliot, Keats, etc.

Re: this book
I did not get his early poems. The words seemed beautiful but it seemed like sentences were thrown together that had nothing to do with each other. His later poems made more sense to me.

(did not read this particular book, but rather a random pdf of Pablo Neruda poems by PoetryHunter published in 2011)

Note: this review is for my own personal reference.

Really enjoyed the first third, then started losing interest with all the "Ode" poems, to cats...to tomatoes etc. as I'm not really interested trying to make poetry out of any thing, I prefer poetry that speaks of the human condition and those feelings or thungs that we struggle to express.
And I guess in that sense, I do prefer prose, or a mix of poetry and prose depending on the subject/theme.

An ode to the wonderous and hidden, the infinite and the small. I really enjoyed Neruda's musicality and his appreciation of nature motifs in his work, no matter the theme of each poem.
This book was an embrace from warm rain beating on a window, or standing on a cliff's edge watching the sun set and rise.

this one was hard

Neruda was a 20th Century master of wordcraft. This book should be required reading for everyone. Though I don't read Spanish, having the side by side translation helped in absorbing the undulating rhythms of his phrases. While his poems reflect a life full of travel and experiences, a sense of wildness and water, vast ocean or lively stream, pervade his body of work. Even the love poems have a sense of liquidity. My favorite poem of this collection is Rapa Nui - a poem that encompases the mystery and strength of Easter Island.