RIP Pablo Neruda, you would’ve loved Hozier

n  n

As of now I have only read one of Pablo Neruda's poetry collections, The Captain's Verses, which was mesmerizing. This was s much shorter collection and the poems didn't speak to me as powerfully as those in The Captain's Verses, however I can't deny Neruda's ability to put into words such contrasting feelings of love and joy versus despair and misery. My favorite poem from this collection is called "Poetry" and in particular this stanza:

And I, infinitesimal being,
drunk with the great starry
void,
likeness, image of
mystery,
felt myself a pure part
of the abyss,
I wheeled with the stars,
my heart broke loose on the wind

My favorite love poems by Neruda.

If you've seen Il Postino (The Postman) you will appreciate this co-requisite: a compilation of the love poems referenced in the movie. A must have to "whoo" to your loved-one in bed. :)

short and sweet; there are many great passages within these pages. i was initially confused by the title considering not many of the poems center around love, but i now believe all of them do in their own special way. i loved the poem “poetry” and was going to include a quote from it in my review, but i have been gifted something much greater in the form of a dedication on the front cover:

Being apart from you means separation from the best parts of myself, replaced by the ache of their absences and the silence when I call out your name.

What a romantic love poem. Paling suka dengan sepenggal kalimat manis: love is so short, forgetting is so long (dari puisi xx Tonight I Can Write). Di tangan Pablo Neruda, cinta dengan begitu indah diramu ke dalam puisi.

i wish i knew spanish. I read the poems in English but Neruda is Neruda. Simply beautiful!

The shortest of short Neruda collections. Three of my favourites here were translated, naturally, by W.S. Merwin: "Walking around" (the salaryman's lament: It happens that I am tired of being a man), the love lyric Tonight I can write the saddest lines, and the thrilling imagery of that poem that starts:

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

The best poems and the best lines have a beauty that is almost liquid... looking over at one's lover in the morning (Stephen Tapscott):

Naked, you are as simple as one of your hands

...or discovering poetry (Alastair Reid):

And it was at that age... Poetry arrived
in search of me. I don't know, I don't know where
it came from, from winter or a river.

...or recalling an Adonic Angela (Donald Walsh):

Today I stretched out next to a pure young woman
as if at the shore of a white ocean

...or admiring a beautiful nude (Nate Tarn):

The moon lives in the lining of your skin.

...or that most famous of lines from Poem XX:

Es tan corto el amor, y es tan largo el olvido.

Time to bust out Veinte Poemas again...

I adore this man's poetry. No words can describe it.

Not that it’s a competition. But, “Tonight I can write…” wins.

Wow!!!
Brilliant poem.
Most brilliant was the one titled "ODE TO THE SEA"