my first exposure to neruda. "tonight i can write" was heartbreaking and "poetry" was a moving explanation of why he (and others) write poetry. but the rest? i'm probably not smart enough or deep enough to understand.
one thing very nice is the original spanish on the left page and english translation on the right.

There is nothing not beautiful about this man and his poetry. It is well with my soul.

i think these are some of his best poems. and the translation is good too

For lack of a more dense Neruda volume at the little used book store by Eastern Market, I picked this book up in August. And for most of September, it was my bath-time reader. I do recommend this collection, but mostly for those who can read it in its original Spanish. Something about the meter of the English translations was a little funny.

If you want it, I have it and would be glad to swap.

This is likely one of the more accessible collections of Neruda's love poetry, I would rate the reading difficulty within as rather low, this should not dissuade anyone from purchasing the collection.

As-well, I would recommend "Ten Poems" to the casual poetry reader, it is not riddled with cliches (as other modern love collections are) but is rich with inspiration; overall, an excellent introduction to the writer.

Lovely verse. Also helped me reconnect with my Spanish. I questioned some of the translation, though.

This is one of my favorite anthologies by my favorite poet. It is one of the most celebrated works of the Nobel Prize-winning poet- Pablo Neruda. His ability to express deep passion through simple metaphors makes this anthology close to our hearts.

n  “I like for you to be still
I like for you to be still
It is as though you are absent
And you hear me from far away
And my voice does not touch you
It seems as though your eyes had flown away
And it seems that a kiss had sealed your mouth
As all things are filled with my soul
You emerge from the things
Filled with my soul
You are like my soul
A butterfly of dream
And you are like the word: Melancholy.”
n

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Totes awesome, used it to practice my Spanish, I've been told that I really should watch the movie, maybe I will someday

“I like for you to be still; it is as though you were absent,

and you hear me from far away and my voice does

not touch you.

It seems as though your eyes had flow away

and it seems kiss had sealed your mouth”

-these are the first few lines from a poem by Pablo Neruda titled “I like for you to be still”.

I had borrowed a small book of his love poems from a friend last week. Started reading it on a night when I wasn’t in a good head-space. So I curled up with this little book on the bed, reading Neruda’s poetry softly to myself. Quite frankly – I didn’t understand what the first one meant, at least not at the first reading. So I read it out two times more and then deduced my own meanings from the lines. They are probably far from what the poet meant.

“I like for you to be still” was the second poem in the book and is my favorite from all the ten. Though short, the end brought a smile to my face and of-course, I read it once again. I moved on to the next poem titled ‘Poetry’, which talks about how the poet was inspired to write his first few lines. There is no tangible muse, the poet claims it was poetry that came looking for him and he knows not from where. For me, I felt like the idea of this poem was to tell the readers that it doesn’t matter what inspires one to write, what matters more is what that writing does to the writer. In this case, Neruda talks about how poetry sets his heart free. I was content with reading just three poems that night and then fell asleep earlier than usual in a long long time. Neruda’s poetry was soothing.

The next day, I texted a friend about how his poetry comforted me when I was feeling low for no reason whatsoever. And she told me how some of her lovers had tried to impress her by reciting Pablo’s poetry.

“Tonight I can write the saddest Lines” she texted and then sent me the link to that poem.

“It’s the most cliche break-up poem but the fact that men make the effort to make you feel guilty, it’s crazy” she added.

Since I hadn’t read all the poems in the book, I didn’t know that the same poem was part of the collection too. It’s poem number nine and beautifully written, a resigned sorrow permeates all the lines. “Love is so short, forgetting is so long” Neruda laments and with that one line he resonates with everyone who has ever loved and lost.

There was just one poem that I thought was a little odd in the collection but since this collection is supposed to have works that were consequential to a film on Neruda called ‘Il Postino’, I don’t have much context. The poem is about a naked mermaid who accidentally stumbles into a bar full of drunks and is treated like dirt; men spit on her, put out their cigarette stubs on her skin. For some reason, it reminded me of a disturbing art experiment, where an artist stood still for hours and said people could do whatever they wanted to do with her. At the end of it, people had disrobed her, groped her, even made cuts on her body. It was horrifying.

The last poem in the book titled “Ode to the Sea” made me nostalgic about the beach city I grew up in, where my parents still stay and I haven’t seen them this year at all. So while Neruda’s poem comforted me in the beginning, they left me longing for home in the end.

It’s a five on five stars from me.

Leaning into the afternoons...

Leaning into the afternoons I cast my sad nets
towards your oceanic eyes.

There in the highest blaze my solitude lengthens and flames,
its arms turning like a drowning man's.

I send out red signals across your absent eyes
that wave like the sea or the beach by a lighthouse.

You keep only darkness, my distant female,
from your regard sometimes the coast of dread emerges.

Leaning into the afternoons I fling my sad nets
to that sea that is thrashed by your oceanic eyes.

The birds of night peck at the first stars
that flash like my soul when I love you.

The night gallops on its shadowy mare
shedding blue tassels over the land.

~ from the book.

pablo neruda just does it for me

This was the book, discovered buried on a shelf at the local library, that first introduced me to Pablo Neruda's poetry, and I have been in love ever since. My personal favorite was "Inclinado en las tardes"