Pablo Neruda

In his long life as a poet, Pablo Neruda succeeded in becoming what many poets have aspired to but never achieved: a public voice, a voice not just for the people of his country but for his entire continent. Widely translated, he probably reached more readers than any poet in history; justly so, for, as he often said, his "poet's obligation" was to become a voice for all those who had no voice, an aspiration that stemmed from his long-time commitment...

First published in 1924, Veinte Poemas de Amor y una Cancion Desesperada remains among Neruda's most popular work. Daringly metaphorical, these poems are based upon his own private associations. Their sensuous use of nature symbolism to celebrate love and to express grief has not been surpassed in the literature of our century. This edition offers the original Spanish text, with masterly translations by W.S. Merwin of facing pages.

"Pablo Neruda's lost poems--recently discovered in his archive to the delight of readers and scholars--comprise this remarkable and essential volume. Originally composed on napkins, playbills, receipts, and notebooks, Neruda's lost poems are full of eros and heartache, complex wordplay and deep wonder. Presented with the Spanish text, full-color reproductions of handwritten poems, and dynamic English translations, Then Come Back: The Lost Neruda simultaneously...

"Fully Empowered" first appeared in Spanish in 1962, under the title "Plenos Poderes". Neruda himself regarded this collection as a particular favorite, partly because it came out of a most fruitful period in his life, partly because it is a miscellany of poetic manners, a representative anthology of his vast poetic range. The thirty-six poems vary from short, intense lyrics through characteristic Neruda odes and whimsical addresses to friends to...

Poems dealing with the soiled aspect of the human condition and the sumptuous appeal of the tactile are presented in Spanish and English.