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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 861
EAN: 9780292760288
ISBN: 0292760280
Label: University of Texas Press
Manufacturer: University of Texas Press
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 232
Publication Date: 1986
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Studio: University of Texas Press

If you've ever wished for a fresh and imaginative way of saying "I love you" to your beloved, peruse Chilean poet Pablo Neruda's 100 Love Sonnets. This intimate bilingual collection overflows with the master poet's signature sensuality and inventive imagery. Written in the 1950s for his cherished wife Matilde Urrutia, Neruda's earnest adoration leaps off the page in poem after poem: "Your heart is a clay toy shaped like a dove"; "Your kisses are clusters of fruit, fresh with dew." Thanks to translator Stephen Tapscott, Neruda's dreamy images carry over vividly from the Spanish and dance in the mind for days after they're read.

Neruda pays only loose tribute to the sonnet by employing a 14-line structure for each poem. As he says, his sonnets are made of wood, rather than the "silver, or crystal, or cannonfire" of a more refined sonnet. Neruda's humility is apparent as he refers again and again to the natural landscape of Isla Negra (the Pacific island where he and his wife lived) to describe his simple dedication to Matilde: "...I am like a scorched rock / that suddenly sings when you are near, because it drinks / the water you carry from the forest, in your voice."

Journeying from the erotic celebration of the body to the spiritual depths of eternal union, 100 Love Sonnets shows why "two happy lovers make one bread" and "waking, they leave one sun empty in their bed."

Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Tapscott's liberties
Review: Am reading through Pablo Neruda's 100 Love Sonnets for a second time. A lot of the Amazon customer reviews for this book mentioned that the translator, Stephen Tapscott, produced English versions laden with inaccuracies and liberties and errors. I must admit: I haven't studied Spanish since elementary school, but I think I can glean enough from the en face Spanish of Neruda's original language that I can safely agree with this assessment.

Tapscott routinely renders singulars as plurals, and plurals as singulars. The same Spanish word, "rocío," is rendered "dew" in one place and "soft rain" in another. In sonnet IX alone, we have "restless" for "indócil" (are restlessness and indocility the same thing?), and "dazzling lurch of the sea" for "deslumbrante movimiento marino."

Allowing for the fact that a translator must occasionally use synonyms and avoid cognates, is "lurch of the sea" really the best choice? The alliteration is lost, and the meaning is changed to something that, perhaps, Neruda would not want. "Marine movement" would be equally unacceptable; it is flat, and "movement" sounds a little odd. "Motion," perhaps? "Maritime motion." I'm not equipped to translate Spanish into an English that can be called poetry, but I'm fairly certain that "lurch" is a mistake, as it gives us more Tapscott than Neruda.

Having said all this, Tapscott is brave enough to give us Neruda's original sonnets, so we can compare Tapscott's English to the Nobel laureate's Spanish. It is perhaps inevitable that Tapscott would suffer in the comparison. And these translations, however flawed, do open up the Sonnets to those of us who are Spanish-impaired.

Some memorable lines:

sonnet 78, "Yo pagué la vileza con palomas" ("I repaid vileness with doves");

sonnet 81, "tus ojos se cerraron como dos alas grises" ("your eyes closed like two gray wings");

sonnet 84,
"una copa en que cae la ceniza celeste,
una gota en el pulso de un lento y largo río"

("a chalice filling with celestial ashes,
a drop in the pulse of a long slow river");

sonnet 100,
"Ya no habrá sino todo el aire libre,
las manzanas llevadas por el viento,
el suculento libro en la enramada,

"y allí donde respiran los claveles
fundaremos un traje que resista
la eternidad de un beso victorioso"

("There won't be anything but all the fresh air,
apples carried on the wind,
the succulent book in the woods:

"and there where the carnations breathe, we will begin
to make ourselves a clothing, something to last
through the eternity of a victorious kiss").

Five stars out of five for Neruda's sonnets, three stars for Tapscott's translations.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Awesome!
Review: It is a masterpiece of latin-american literature. It is a new experience into the depths of the human heart. It has unique metaphors and similies that picture the most passionate and simple type of love!

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: When you cannot find the words to express how you are feel!
Review: Without a doubt, truly one of the best love sonnets. Huge fan of Pablo Neruda and thrilled to have a copy of this book.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Honorable
Review: Pablo Neruda is possible one of the truest masters of the written word. His poetry, ranging from affairs of the heart to affairs of state are always relevant and somehow touch you. Although the translation of Sonnet 17 done in this book isn't my favorite, the overall experience of the book is one that generally leaves you with the impression that Pablo Neruda was a man who felt things and felt them with a depth we can only hope to know... someday.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A poor translation
Review: Neruda is great, no doubt about it. He even shines through in places here, despite these clunky and artless translations of his beautiful poems. If you really want to read a translation which retains Neruda's passion, try W.S. Merwin . Being a fine poet in his own right he has a light hand and a feel for words that is true to the spirit of Neruda's writings.

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