From Booklist
*Starred Review* The great Chilean poet Neruda, who received the Nobel Prize in 1971, two years before his death at age 69, acknowledged the twofold path of his poetry when he wrote, "I have a pact of love with beauty: / I have a pact of blood with my people." The earth's glory was the portal to truth for Neruda, and his nature poems are as ravishing in the splendor of their brilliant metaphors and the eroticism of their luscious detail as his renowned love poems. The poet's deep compassion for humankind, ardor for history, and attention to politics also inspired him to write incisively of conquistadors and tyrants, war and corporate imperialism. Passionate and prolific, Neruda himself was a force of nature, filling 35 books with poetry remarkable for its "simplicity, honesty, and conviction." Critic Ilan Stavans has created the first comprehensive English-language survey of Neruda's legendary oeuvre, judiciously selecting and expertly discussing 600 poems to create a genuinely invaluable and deeply pleasurable volume. Major works are presented in the original Spanish in this literary landmark, and the adept translators include such outstanding poets as Martin Espada, Jane Hirshfield, W. S. Merwin, and Mark Strand. Donna Seaman
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Book Description
The most comprehensive English-language collection of work ever by "the greatest poet of the twentieth century--in any language" (Gabriel García Márquez)

"In his work a continent awakens to consciousness." So wrote the Swedish Academy in awarding the Nobel Prize to Pablo Neruda, the author of more than thirty-five books of poetry and one of Latin America's most revered writers, lionized during his lifetime as "the people's poet."

This selection of Neruda's poetry, the most comprehensive single volume available in English, presents nearly six hundred poems, scores of them in new and sometimes multiple translations, and many accompanied by the Spanish original. In his introduction, Ilan Stavans situates Neruda in his native milieu as well as in a contemporary English-language one, and a group of new translations by leading poets testifies to Neruda's enduring, vibrant legacy among English-speaking writers and readers today.



About the Author
Pablo Neruda (1904-73), Chile's greatest poet, was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1971.

Ilan Stavans is Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In his work a continent awakens to consciousness," wrote the Swedish Academy in awarding the Nobel Prize to Pablo Neruda, author of more than thirty-five books of poetry and one of Latin America's most revered writers and political figures--a loyal member of the Communist party, a lifelong diplomat and onetime senator, a man lionized during his lifetime as "the people's poet."

Born Neftali Basoalto, Neruda adopted his pen name in fear of his family's disapproval, and yet by the age of twenty-five he was already famous for the book Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, which remains his most beloved. During the next fifty years, a seemingly boundless metaphorical language linked his romantic fantasies and the fierce moral and political compass--exemplified in books such as Canto General--that made him an adamant champion of the dignity of ordinary men and women.

Edited and with an introduction by Ilan Stavans, this is the most comprehensive single-volume collection of this prolific poet's work in English. Here the finest translations of nearly six hundred poems by Neruda are collected and join specially commissioned new translations that attest to Neruda's still-resounding presence in American letters.

FROM THE CRITICS

The Washington Post

Coinciding with this major occasion and anticipating the 100th anniversary of his birth, which will be marked this coming spring, is The Poetry of Pablo Neruda, a mammoth volume edited by Ilan Stavans, who, in the void created by the death of his compatriot Octavio Paz, has emerged as Latin America's liveliest and boldest critic and most innovative cultural enthusiast. In his introduction, Stavans states that his objective in The Poetry of Pablo Neruda "is to offer the reader an image of Neruda's entire poetic arc." To that effect, he has chosen roughly 600 poems, translated by an abundance of contributors, including Stavans himself. — Jaime Manrique

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