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20 Poemas Al Árbol Y Un Cactus De La Costa
poetry
- GenresPoetry
180 pages, Paperback
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About the author
Pablo Neruda
1,082 books9,632 followersPablo Neruda, born Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto in 1904 in Parral, Chile, was a poet, diplomat, and politician, widely considered one of the most influential literary figures of the 20th century. From an early age, he showed a deep passion for poetry, publishing his first works as a teenager. He adopted the pen name Pablo Neruda to avoid disapproval from his father, who discouraged his literary ambitions. His breakthrough came with Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada (Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, 1924), a collection of deeply emotional and sensual poetry that gained international recognition and remains one of his most celebrated works.
Neruda’s career took him beyond literature into diplomacy, a path that allowed him to travel extensively and engage with political movements around the world. Beginning in 1927, he served in various consular posts in Asia and later in Spain, where he witnessed the Spanish Civil War and became an outspoken advocate for the Republican cause. His experiences led him to embrace communism, a commitment that would shape much of his later poetry and political activism. His collection España en el corazón (Spain in Our Hearts, 1937) reflected his deep sorrow over the war and marked a shift toward politically engaged writing.
Returning to Chile, he was elected to the Senate in 1945 as a member of the Communist Party. However, his vocal opposition to the repressive policies of President Gabriel Gonzalez Videla led to his exile. During this period, he traveled through various countries, including Argentina, Mexico, and the Soviet Union, further cementing his status as a global literary and political figure. It was during these years that he wrote Canto General (1950), an epic work chronicling Latin American history and the struggles of its people.
Neruda’s return to Chile in 1952 marked a new phase in his life, balancing political activity with a prolific literary output. He remained a staunch supporter of socialist ideals and later developed a close relationship with Salvador Allende, who appointed him as Chile’s ambassador to France in 1970. The following year, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, recognized for the scope and impact of his poetry. His later years were marked by illness, and he died in 1973, just days after the military coup that overthrew Allende. His legacy endures, not only in his vast body of work but also in his influence on literature, political thought, and the cultural identity of Latin America.
Neruda’s career took him beyond literature into diplomacy, a path that allowed him to travel extensively and engage with political movements around the world. Beginning in 1927, he served in various consular posts in Asia and later in Spain, where he witnessed the Spanish Civil War and became an outspoken advocate for the Republican cause. His experiences led him to embrace communism, a commitment that would shape much of his later poetry and political activism. His collection España en el corazón (Spain in Our Hearts, 1937) reflected his deep sorrow over the war and marked a shift toward politically engaged writing.
Returning to Chile, he was elected to the Senate in 1945 as a member of the Communist Party. However, his vocal opposition to the repressive policies of President Gabriel Gonzalez Videla led to his exile. During this period, he traveled through various countries, including Argentina, Mexico, and the Soviet Union, further cementing his status as a global literary and political figure. It was during these years that he wrote Canto General (1950), an epic work chronicling Latin American history and the struggles of its people.
Neruda’s return to Chile in 1952 marked a new phase in his life, balancing political activity with a prolific literary output. He remained a staunch supporter of socialist ideals and later developed a close relationship with Salvador Allende, who appointed him as Chile’s ambassador to France in 1970. The following year, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, recognized for the scope and impact of his poetry. His later years were marked by illness, and he died in 1973, just days after the military coup that overthrew Allende. His legacy endures, not only in his vast body of work but also in his influence on literature, political thought, and the cultural identity of Latin America.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 15, 2019
A gorgeous (and gorgeously illustrated) selection of Neruda’s poetry, drawn from throughout his life, including work from his very first publication (Fair Aromos On The Fields Of Loncoche, 1923) and the unfinished work recovered after he had died (The Chilean Woods, 1973).
The organising principle of these poems is trees, the Chilean forests, and the southern land they belong too. The advantage of such a focused selection like this is that it gives a sense of how Neruda’s approach changed through his life, and the many ways he approached the same themes. So there is the surrealism of Entering The Wood (1935) and the poems from Neruda’s most ambitious work, Canto General (1950), which feel somewhat dislocated without their context. Quite a number of the poems here, taken from the 1964 collection Memorial de Isla Negra evoke Neruda’s sense of displacement from southern Chile where he was born, his longing and his memories of an idyllic childhood.
Interestingly, the most poignant demonstrations of this feeling for me do not come from Neruda’s poems about living trees, but from those where the trees have been cut down. Across three stunning poems he makes timber a vessel of memory and time. In Letter For Them To Send Me Timber (one of the most wonderful titles in the collection), Neruda tells of how the perfume of wood ‘will be building my house.’ Later in Ode To timber, he caresses the wood: ‘if I touch you/you answer’. And in Sawn-down Logs Upon A Truck On A Road In Chile he sees the violent history of southern Chile, as well as creating this exquisite image of noon: ‘Midday is a blue clock/static, round, pierced/by the slow/flight of a black bird’. Another highlight is Botany from Canto General, a delightfully strange field guide to the flora of Chile.
The translation is generally good, and does its best to recreate the breaks of Neruda’s free verse. There are minor annoyances: you might come away thinking Chile’s woods are full of larches, hazels, and oaks, but these literal translations of alerce, avellano and roble hide the fact that these trees are utterly unique to Chile, totally unlike their northern namesakes. Another bother is that none of poems name when or which collection they are from.
The collection ends with a note of difference, an ode to a desert cactus, in whose stoicism and ugliness Neruda finds a rallying point for the downtrodden everywhere. Neruda’s poetry sometimes dipped towards propaganda, and there may be elements of that here with his ‘red ray’ bursting forth. But there is also something enduringly hopeful about the concluding line: ‘Spring shall not forget us.’
The organising principle of these poems is trees, the Chilean forests, and the southern land they belong too. The advantage of such a focused selection like this is that it gives a sense of how Neruda’s approach changed through his life, and the many ways he approached the same themes. So there is the surrealism of Entering The Wood (1935) and the poems from Neruda’s most ambitious work, Canto General (1950), which feel somewhat dislocated without their context. Quite a number of the poems here, taken from the 1964 collection Memorial de Isla Negra evoke Neruda’s sense of displacement from southern Chile where he was born, his longing and his memories of an idyllic childhood.
Interestingly, the most poignant demonstrations of this feeling for me do not come from Neruda’s poems about living trees, but from those where the trees have been cut down. Across three stunning poems he makes timber a vessel of memory and time. In Letter For Them To Send Me Timber (one of the most wonderful titles in the collection), Neruda tells of how the perfume of wood ‘will be building my house.’ Later in Ode To timber, he caresses the wood: ‘if I touch you/you answer’. And in Sawn-down Logs Upon A Truck On A Road In Chile he sees the violent history of southern Chile, as well as creating this exquisite image of noon: ‘Midday is a blue clock/static, round, pierced/by the slow/flight of a black bird’. Another highlight is Botany from Canto General, a delightfully strange field guide to the flora of Chile.
The translation is generally good, and does its best to recreate the breaks of Neruda’s free verse. There are minor annoyances: you might come away thinking Chile’s woods are full of larches, hazels, and oaks, but these literal translations of alerce, avellano and roble hide the fact that these trees are utterly unique to Chile, totally unlike their northern namesakes. Another bother is that none of poems name when or which collection they are from.
The collection ends with a note of difference, an ode to a desert cactus, in whose stoicism and ugliness Neruda finds a rallying point for the downtrodden everywhere. Neruda’s poetry sometimes dipped towards propaganda, and there may be elements of that here with his ‘red ray’ bursting forth. But there is also something enduringly hopeful about the concluding line: ‘Spring shall not forget us.’
March 6, 2018
Dear Neruda—no matter if it is trees or love or inanimate objects, he treats them with passion and vision. One wishes the translator of this book had attempted to emulate Neruda’s rhymed forms, but that might have appeared too daunting.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews