Pablo Neruda Books

This book about Machu Picchu in Peru is not a guide for tourists. It is a work of art drawn from the talents of two men who visited Machu Picchu many years apart. Specifically, it is an integrated collection of exceptional photographs of the site by Barry Brukoff combined with the eloquent poetry of Pablo Neruda, the Nobel Prize winning poet from Peru, based on his visit to Machu Picchu 50 years before that of the photographer. For readers who do not know Spanish, the language of the original poetry, there is an excellent accompanying translation into English. That is also true of a beautiful introduction by Isabel Allende, the famous Peruvian author. If you have never visited this site, the book will still be very interesting. If you have, the book will take you back to the deepest feelings and impressions you had when you did so.

Barry Brukoff has done a truly fine job of capturing the essence of Machu Picchu. I've told many that you cannot convey the feeling of this place in photos, but Brukoff proves that you can. His photos made me feel as though I was back there, discovering the majesty of the site and indulging in a leisurely and personal exploration of the details that delighted me during my visit, details that those on quick tourist jaunts usually miss. Visually, this book is five stars. Neruda's poetry, however, missed the mark for me. An earlier reviewer picked out the best of it and included those lines in his review (see below). I only wish it all worked that well. Personally, I would have preferred excerpts from Neruda's work and excerpts from the writings of Hiram Bingham (Bingham was the man who discovered the site in 1911).

Whether or not you ever visit, or think you might want to visit Machu Picchu, I highly recommend this gorgeous book to you. The combination of its poetry, photography, and design wonderfully connect us to a distant and mysterious culture which we understand little about today.

Machu Picchu, hidden high in the Andes, was never found by Pizarro and his conquistadors. The city was rediscovered in 1911 by Hiram Bingham. Recently, landslides have made entry much more difficult, and the whole area is at risk to being lost. Should that occur, this wonderful volume will serve as a fitting tribute.

Other than the fact that the rocks themselves were considered sacred, we know little about the purpose of Machu Picchu. Clearly, it was very important to the Incas. Otherwise, no one would have put such an enormous effort into creating a city among the clouds, carved out of solid rock. Because some walls have holes cut in them that allow light into certain interior spaces only on one day a year, it is thought that the area, in part, served an astronomical purpose.

The Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda, created an emotional poem called "The Heights of Machu Picchu" in which he captured our connection to the thousands who lived and toiled to make Machu Picchu . . . and are no more. In 1984, photographer Barry Brukoff hiked in over the original Inca road, to capture the scene with Neruda's poem in his backpack. The result of this trip are the remarkable, spiritual photographs in this book. You will feel like you have been there, will identify with what you see, and will make closer contact through Neruda's poem:

"True being was threshed like kernels of corn in the inexhaustible/granary of lost deeds, of memorable efforts . . . ."

"In you, like two parallel lines,/the cradle of lightning and humanity/rocking together in a thorny wind."

" . . . [Y]ou imploded as in a single autumn/into a single death."

"Today the empty air no longer weeps . . . ."

"The dead kingdom lives on."

"Stone upon stone, and man, where was he?"

"Give me back the slaves you buried!"

"Come up, brother, and be born with me."

" . . . [A]nd let my tears flow, hours, days, years,/through sightless ages, starry Autumn."

If you can read Spanish, the poem is published in both languages, side by side.

The photographs make great use of the high mountain air, changing weather conditions, and the differing light of day and night. Brukoff has also created some very stylish effects with filters and tints, in addition to breathtaking color. Many photographers are good at duotone or color, but few are masters of both. Brukoff is the rare example of this dual skill. A nice tough is the way that the book is bound in linen, and there is a rough edging to frame each image . . . to give the book an almost scrapbook-like feel. The photographic reproductions are superb and well worth the price of the book.

My favorite images included: Morning Sun and Fog; The Temple of the Moon; The Grand Rock Shrine (two views); Royal Mausoleum beneath the Torreon; Central Plaza through Three Windows Wall (first version); Sacred Plaza; Central Plaza and Fog; Agricultural Terrace; The Inti Huatana; The Condor Stone; View of the Inti Huatana Area -- Sacred Rocks Echoing the Mountains to the East; A Stone Ring; Machu Picchu at Sunset; and The Watchman's Hut at Dawn (cover image).

The book also has a helpful prologue by Ms. Isabel Allende which sets the scene for the book's contents.

The feeling of connection to the Incas, to the mountains, and to the sky are strong here. I felt a calmness fill my mind and heart as I caressed each part of the poem and each image with my eyes.

What great things we can accomplish . . . when we have a mighty purpose and connect to our sense of beauty!

Purchased this book after just getting back from our first trip to Peru and Machu Picchu. Wonderful photographs. Pablo Neruda's poem, "Heights of Machu Picchu", helped to bring even more meaning to our Machu Picchu's memories. This text is a wonderful way to enhance your experience of actually being at Machu Picchu. It also makes a great coffee table item.

Now, this pablo nerudo translation brings you into the spanish language and allows you to feel what the author is saying. In fact, the poems have more meaning reading them in english becuase of the usage of adjectives. Numeral I and II show good description use in english translation. The english translation seems so much fuller and descriptive opposed to the spanish version.

Jacketti is the best at translating this nobel prize winner's work. All the hard work Dr. Jacketti has ben doing her whole life has really payed off. Her traslations in heaven stone are great she is always impressing me with all the work she has done. I'm very privleged to have her as my teacher.

Jacketti shows real talent in not just translating the words of Pablo Neruda, but bringing each word and phrase to life. An extraordinary find for the reader of this Nobel Prize winning writer. Everone should enjoy it.

Translating poetry is one of the hardest things I've ever seen done but my Fiction teacher Dr. Jacketti does a fantastic job at translating whatever she comes across. When we read the odes together in class Dr. Jacketti's translations helped me through the odes so much more and it was so much easier to understand. When i read alone in my room it was harder to understand but the translations helped a lot. It's great to have Dr. Jacketti as a professor in my college fiction class.

This collection of poetry by Pablo Neruda is excellent. However, due to the many typos in both English and Spanish, I will give this 4 stars. Typos usually annoy me greatly, but this is such a good collection that I just mark corrections in my book and keep going. It would have been much better if the content had been proofread more carefully, however. Perhaps it wasn't proofread at all...

Translating poetry is the most altruistic work on earth. And it is mostly done by poets, whose egos are not very small. It demands a complete devotion from the translator/poet to the text of the poet translated. If the translator succeeds then no one will pay much attention to his work, if it fails then all the criticism will go to the translator and not to the poet.
And this book is not an easy task, Neruda is venerated by many as the best poet of the twentieth century. In Spanish speaking countries he is considered a hero, and is better known than even Whitman in the U.S.
Maria Jacketti has a very special approach to these odes, she makes the English language dance to the poems, rather than try and translate literally word by word the verses of Neruda. While, theoretically, I think that this is a problematic approach (I say this as a translator myself who mostly strives to translate the exact word) she succeeds in creating vivid English versions of the poems, rather than academic translations of them.
The odes are written to the simple things in life, and celebrate the tomato as well as the soup; the table and the moon stand as equally important parts of our existence. Besides the love poems, the odes are the best part of Neruda gigantic poetic work.
This book is a good start for anyone wishing to read Neruda for the first time, but I think that those who will get the most of it are those who speak Spanish too (at least at the basic level). Anyone dealing with the translation of poetry will also learn a lot from Jacketti's approach, even if they have read the text in Spanish or have read other translations.

BTW, a out of print book of translations made by Maria Jacketti sells these days for 100$ and more at auctions, so it may be a good investment too, if you are looking for alternatives to the Nasdaq J

Pablo Neruda is by far, my favorite poet. I must admit that I have not read his more political poetry, I'm more a fan of the love stuff. But, this book includes a little bit of both. Mostly, however, it is a book about life and how he has lived it, what has touched him, aside from Matilde. Wonderful.

The poems in this volume were found in manuscript after the poet's death in 1973. For Neruda, whose poetry so often explodes with life through images of nature and man-made objects bathed in equatorial sunlight pouring from the page in a torrent of language, this volume feels more somber. The images of nature remain abundant, especially those of the sea surrounding his final home on Isla Negra. But the usual tone of a restless celebrant has been muted, replaced by a voice at once valedictory and resigned. Best of all the poet displays a humility that makes these poems moving and accessible.

The subjects of the poems range from meditations on the natural world during winter, the deaths of two activist friends, and the poet's responsiblities, to reflections on the loss of a beloved dog and the poet's own impending death. Neruda's tendencies to create lists and use surrealist techniques have been tempered and integrated into the poetry, keeping them from the wearisome quality of some earlier volumes. This may be a darker book than many volumes of Nedura's verse; but, in no way depressing, Neruda's vision of final things offers comfort. In fact, though it may seem cliched to write it, these poems are truly beautiful.

The edition offered here is bilingual, allowing you the chance to read Neruda directly if you know Spanish. Having no knowledge of Spanish I can only comment that O'Daly's translations are fluid and clear: an hour's steady reading, or meditations to be pondered more slowly over several days. The book itself is designed tastefully making the reading experience all the more enjoyable.

"Winter Garden" is one of several posthumously published volumes of poetry by Pablo Neruda, who died in 1973. This volume is a thoughtful, and frequently melancholy, collection by the great Chilean poet. William O'Daly has translated the poems into a smooth, graceful English. Although I don't believe that "Winter Garden" is quite in the same league as Neruda's greatest works, it is still a deeply moving work that is graced by passages of transcendent beauty.

In this collection of short poems Neruda writes about love, death, nature, and other topics. The natural world is a particularly rich presence: fields, apple trees, Andean snow, "the coasts of Chile," birds in flight, and more appear throughout the book.

Neruda is particularly moving when reflecting upon his lifelong quest to fulfil the poet's duty. It is heartbreaking when he laments, "I didn't have enough time or ink for everyone" and asks forgiveness "from anyone not here" (in the poem "For All to Know"). If you have been moved by the other great works of Neruda, or if you simply appreciate beautiful and emotionally rich poetry, you will want to read "Winter Garden."

Pienso que este libro es uno de los mejores que se ha escrito en terminos de autobiografia. El mismo nos permite conocer a fondo la vida de este gran escritor.

Neruda ha escrito en el ambito de la autobiografia, una obra maestra. Franca, aveces muy divertida pero tambien triste como es la vida. Su dominio de la palabra y prosa es indiscutible. No todos van a estar de acuerdo con sus observaciones politicas pero lo que sobresale es su mezcla de prosa con poesia. Es una obra de arte.

Leer a Neruda es inevitable para tener entendimiento de la poesía latinoamericana del siglo XX. Desde sus tempranos y románticos poemas hasta sus odas a las cosas cotidianas, pasando por sus poemas de contenido político y revolucionario, Neruda cambió para siempre la forma en la que se escriben poemas en español.

"...Se lo llevaron todo y nos dejaron todo...Nos dejaron las palabras" , escuchar a Neruda es sentirse atrapado por el poeta en pleno canto,sentir al hombre que ama las palabras,y tener el privilegio de revivirnos con cada frase.

This short book includes 21 poems both in the original Spanish and their English translation. I can't speak of the quality of the translations but the poems are superb. Written after being diagnosed with cancer, these poems offer a certain decision to live ("Now and then, I am happy!"), and a certain freedom. There is a poem of the Ostrogodo family that "spoke so often of the dead ... that a strange thing happened"., of "a naked man who lived for many long years", "a poem of lightening and of disasters of raining ash", of "dismantled Cervantes", and a life in the suburbs. I'd probably recommend reading the poems first, then the introduction, since O'Daly perhaps offers too much interpretation on first reading.

This is a loving work of translation, as O'Daly does what is rare - transform Neruda's mastery of Spanish into a readable English lyricism. Fortunately for the reader, this is a feat O'Daly has accomplished in all his translations of Neruda's posthumous poetry. Compare this work to Ben Belitt's butcherous acts of translation in his "Five Decades" and you will know what a treasure O'Daly's work truly is. Anyone with any knowledge of the Spanish language will see what twisted mutations Belitt has given birth to in his translations. By comparison O'Daly preserves the tone and wonder of Neruda's incantations to life and love. For anyone seeking a start to Neruda, O'Daly's translations by Copper Canyon Press are indispensable gifts. For anyone seeking to understand the complexities of translation, buy Belitt's volume and compare it to O'Daly's transmutations of loving gold. Dan Vera (dvera@ups.edu)

First I saw the 1994 film "Il Postino" and fell in love with it. The movie is absolutely wonderful. So then I thought that naturally I would love the book and bought a copy in English and in Spanish. True, the setting in Chile makes a whole lot more sense than the movie, but I found the book very dry so that I lost interest quickly. The Postman is boring and then all of a sudden out of the blue, there's a graphicly erotic scene, and then it goes back to being how it was until another one comes along. I really enjoy Neruda's poetry, but I don't find this book very romantic at all. The relationship between Mario and Beatriz is just one of sexual attraction, and I don't find any depth in the characters. The movie captures something beautiful that the book is missing, without all the unnecessary eroticism, and I would check it out instead.

If you thought that it was good in English, you should read it in Spanish! El cartero de Neruda or Ardiente paciencia. Very good!

You can read the other reviews for comments about the book, but I feel compelled to correct everyone's misstatement about Neruda living on an "island." I have been to Isla Negra and to Neruda's home turned museum there, and it is a costal town in Chile, not an island (despite the name!) Neruda was a Chilean poet who appealed to the "common person," making the story entirely believable.

My first reaction on opening this book was one of surprise: the book, unlike the movie, is completely Chilean, with no Italian connection whatsoever. As such, the book, in my view, fits better into its context than the movie did.

This is the story of one Mario, who becomes a postman once Isla Negra, an island off the coast of Chile, gets a literate resident, Pablo Neruda. Mario is an admirer of Neruda's works, and is determined to form a personal bond with the poet, with a veiw to getting a coveted autograph. When Mario falls in love with the local beauty Beatriz, however, his bond with Neruda becomes much more than that of an autograph-seeker: the poet recognises a fellow dreamer in Mario, and helps him in his quest of love.

The story is presented in a ceremonial language sometimes verging on the pompous, as in "He was bathed in the light of the incommensurable moon and felt certain, as he stroked her neck, that he knew about infinity." Skármeta's choice of words only adds to the charm of the novella, though. As the author shows in his prologue to "The Postman", he does not take his own verbosity seriously, using it, rather, to add an ironic touch to an otherwise idyllic tale.

I don't much like the poetry of Pablo Neruda. I loathe communists in general. And I think General Pinochet did the right thing when he overthrew Salvador Allende. But somehow, I love this story of a young postman on Isla Negra, Chile and the relationship that he develops with his sole customer, the great communist poet Neruda.

Mario Jimenez has no desire to follow in the footsteps of his father and most of the other men of the island and become a fisherman. So he leaps at the chance to take over a postal route that requires only that he deliver the voluminous correspondence that comes for the island's most famous resident. Timidly at first and then more insistently, Mario calls upon Neruda to teach him about poetry and language. Then, after meeting a luminous young bar maid named Beatrice, he demands that Neruda help him to woo her. Eventually Mario wins her love, in large part through his own poetical devices, including an amusing string of metaphors.

When Salvador Allende assumes the Chilean presidency, Neruda is sent to France as ambassador and Mario becomes sort of a surrogate set of eyes and ears for the poet, sending him observations and recordings of daily life. Initially, life is good in the new Chile, but things gradually deteriorate in an onslaught of shortages, work stoppages and violence. Neruda, who in the intervening years has won the Nobel Prize for Literature, returns home to the island to die and Mario is whisked away "for questioning."

Despite the down beat ending, this short novel is filled with memorable, if overly idealized, characters, for whom the author clearly has great affection, and scenes of thrilling erotic passion and it is animated by a sense of the beauty of language and poetry. I recommend both the book and the Oscar winning movie adaptation of several years ago.

GRADE: A

The biography is excellent. All the gore and the glory of a magnificent poet, a magnificent poet. So impressed was I, that while having innumerable books by Neruda, and his posthumously published memoirs, I still went out and obtained Obras Completas through a bookstore in Madrid. I have summered on Isla Negra and had the good fortune of meeting Matilde. The author does an outstanding job of giving us the most objective portrait of Neruda, not hiding the blemishes. Neruda was always a boy with a huge heart and lots of love for most (mostly women). Quite sad that a poetic voice like this is gone. Sad also that in his politics Neruda was myopic. The radical left, the radical right, what's the difference? He could never see that point. The author brings this issue out as well with verisimilitude.

I was anxious for this book to get a more honest view of Neruda's life than his own memoirs, as beautifully written and fascinating as they are. But the author describes this dynamic poet in such dry writing it is actually painful sometimes to read it. The first clue comes from the first line. How uncreative to begin a biography, "X was born in Y place in the year 19ZZ." With no offense to the British, but as Ilan Stavans says in his review above, "Feinstein's is the type of biographical job the British have mastered: unadorned, straightforward, making sure the observer is kept at a distance." As well: "Feinstein fails to deliver sustained analytical insight. Neruda's poetry as a whole (he left us thousands and thousands of poems) is reduced to a mere map of his life, which, unfortunately, diminishes its depth. Feinstein doesn't distinguish between the good and the bad, and is so cautious in his approach, so impartial, that he describes ideological confrontations as if they were mere brawls outside a bar." I completely agree. There is no insight into the poetry itself, it doesn't give a good explanation for Neruda's contradictory Stalinism. I also often disagree with some of the insights he does include. There's one poem, for instance, which was obviously written for Neruda's sick daughter which Feinstein believes was written for a totally different situation. Publishers Weekly ends their review above, stating that "His dry writing fails to bring the poet alive on the page, but this is a necessary book, with many beautiful photos." I agree about the writing, but I hope that this isnt a necessary book, for W.W. Norton will becoming out with a new biography of Neruda in 2008, written by Mark Eisner, the editor of one of my favorite collections of Neruda, The Essential Neruda. I'm hoping that will be the vibrant and insightful book that this isnt. I'm waiting for it, I suggest you do too. Meanwhile, read Neruda's lyrical Memoirs.

Reviewer: A reader from London, UK United Kingdom

Not many writers lead such a colourful life as Neruda. The Chilean Nobel prize winner was not only a diplomat, a world class poet, and a lover of many women--- he had three wives and many mistresses---he was also a supporter of the Republican cause in Spain, responsible for rescuing many of Franco's enemies, and a staunch left-winger who wanted to write for the many rather than the few . . He was forced to flee for his life over the Andes on a donkey when the Chilean government became a tyranny, and was close to Allende at the time of his death. Feinstein tells the story judiciously; he honestly addresses the poet's continuing support for Communism, even after Stalin's crimes were widely known , and does not attempt to palliate his many infidelities. What comes through is Neruda's passion for life, and Feinstein's passion for his subject. A riveting read.

Pablo Neruda, of whom Garcia` marquez has called"the greatest poet of the 20th century-in any language",has never had a full length biography in english.Until now.the man Neruda that Mr.Feinstein portrays is an often selfish,self absorbed genuis,who invented his own myth and ferociously hung on to it until his death,a couple of weeks after the murderous coup that took the life and lifeblood of his beloved Chile,and installed the US puppet regime of the neo-fascist Augusto pinochet. In his memoirs, Neruda never mentions his abandonment of his wife and handicapped child, not her subsequent death during WWII.His long held Stalinist beliefs,which in his memoirs he speaks of ruefully, are fully exposed here by Mr feinstein, though he seems to lack any historical prespective on this issue.His philandering is also brought to light[ad nauseum,actually} before meeting Matilde,his third wife[and by most accounts, the second love of his life,after his country} People who only have been introcduced to Neruda through the wonderful film Il Postino might be shocked at the great poets behaviour.[BTW,the novel Il Postino,a novella,actually is well worth reading,and is far darker then the film]All of the greats of the 20th century are here: Garcia Lorca,Sartre,Picasso,Nazim Hikmet,Mistral,Borges`.Nerudas life was often like a movie,surreal and silly. What Mr feinstein doesnt grasp,despite his copius research, is how such a bob vivant,political radical,philandereer inveterate collector,could have written like a slumming angel,for if anything,Gracia Marquez is quite correct.Canto general is a classic on the same level as Leaves of Grass[whose author was also deeply flawed,no?}Residence on earth,20 ,love poems and a song of despair[written as a very young man, which is covered very well in this book]The touching,brilliant 100 love songs for his wife[then mistress] matilde is not fully explored as i would have liked. I am biased,i admit.I read neruda every day,we have a woodcut of him over our kitchen table, my husband wears a wrist watch bearing Nerudas image,so we obviously love him. I found watching his satue crumble painful, and another lesson in hero worship. This book, successfully portrays Pablo Neruda in a;;his glory [and not so glorious ways] and gives, at last a full blooded portrait of this great treasure of the americas. Highly Recommedded

More than thirty years ago, I gave a copy of Neruda's "Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair to the woman who would later become my wife. All these years later, I still read Neruda's poems aloud to her, and I am still nourished in the autumn of my own life by the rich array of poetry that this great writer produced from his adolescence to old age. Adam Feinstein produces a loving, yet unflinching, portrait of Neruda. Here is a man whose generosity and determination saved the lives of hundreds of refugees from war-torn Spain. Yet here, too, is the man who abandoned his first wife and their developmentally delayed daughter, betrayed all of his wives, and shamefully continued to embrace Stalin's legacy long after many of his peers were humbled by the recognition of Stalin's evil. What I most enjoyed about Feinstein's biography, however, is the way in which Neruda's poetry is charted in the context of his adult developmental. Learning about the broad changes in Neruda's path through his life, the failed marriages, the political career, the aging poet, helps place all his works in a context that enriches the reader's experience of the poetry. In the end, however, we are left with a mystery: the biographical details of Neruda's life cannot explain the greatness of his poetry. This childlike, vain, and self-absorbed man was also a stunning genius, whose passion for life will illuminate the lives of others for centuries.

The Sea and The Bells is the best poetry collection I've ever read. Uncompleted at the time of Neruda's death, only 1/3 of the poems in this collection were titled. However, the wisdom and eloquence with which Neruda worked in the last year of his life is without peer in the canon of 20th century poetry. His "Finale" written on his deathbed to his wife, Matilde, is devastating.

Neruda's balance of humor, power, spirituality, compassion and love is so clear in a few of these poems, you may find these poems like little prayers on which you can meditate. For example:

If each day falls
inside each night,
there exists a well
where clarity is imprisoned.

We need to sit on the rim
of the well of darkness
and fish for fallen light
with patience.

Maybe it's just me, but this kind of poetry reads like the wise words of a Buddhist monk high in the mountains of Nepal, man. This collection is the deaf, dope jam.

The only criticism I have is with the translation. William O'Daly makes several unusually bland decisions in translating from the original Spanish. For example, Neruda literally writes in We Are Waiting "o para asesinarnos de inmediato" where the verb "assassinate" is pretty darn clear. The phrase literally translates "or to immediately assassinate us." Given the political tension Neruda was writing under having won the Nobel Prize and having returned to Chile, it is reasonably clear why he used the word "assassinate." O'Daly's translation reads: "or to instantly murder us" opting for the bland general word "murder" rather than the clear, stronger word "assassinate." O'Daly makes similarly odd decisions throughout the text. Fortunately, the original Spanish appears alongside O'Daly's translation so you can read what Neruda actually wrote.

Beyond the translation, this is the best poetry collection I have ever read. I highly recommend it to anyone who appreciates language being used at its absolute finest. The Sea and The Bells raises the bar for all of us. Read it, and enjoy!

Stacey

Pablo Neruda is one of my favorite poets of all time, however, William O' Daly does not do Neruda justice. His translation is flat and unevocative, and unable to invoke those true emotions that Neruda is famous for. I would recommend checking out translations by W.S. Merwin if you want the full ecstatic experience that Neruda usually so eloquently conveys.

I have to disagree entirely with the reviewer below. If he is pining for the wild exuberances characteristics of earlier stages in Neruda's writings, he should not look for it here: for all their wordplay, these last books of Neruda's (the handful he worked on simultaneously during the last year of his life) are about preparing for death. I've noticed here and there some nuance which seemed not to have caught the translator's eye, but otherwise he has made a remarkably rewarding transation of the ruminative, supple-then-lurching tone of PN's Spanish. "The Sea and the Bells" is a crockpot of mystery, a book to read and learn slowly over years.