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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 861
EAN: 9780292760295
ISBN: 0292760299
Label: Univ of Texas Pr
Manufacturer: Univ of Texas Pr
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 222
Publication Date: 1986-06
Publisher: Univ of Texas Pr
Studio: Univ of Texas Pr

Against the backdrop of Isla Negra — the sea and wind, the white sand with its scattering of delicate wild flowers, the hot sun and salty smells of the Pacific — Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda sets these joyfully sensual poems in celebration of his love. The subject of that love: Matilde Urrutia de Neruda, the poet's "beloved wife."

As popular in the Hispanic world as the poet's renowned Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, One Hundred Love Sonnets has never before been published in its entirety in English translation. The reason for this astonishing neglect may lie in the historical circumstances that surrounded Neruda's "discovery " by English-speaking readers. In the United States he came to popularity during the turmoil of the sixties, when Americans needed a politically committed poet, and much of Neruda's canon answered that need. But, in his native Chile and throughout Latin America, Neruda has always been cherished as dearly for the earthly sensuality and eroticism of his love poetry as for his statements of political belief. To know this work, then is to understand the poet's art more thoroughly.

Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Pablo Neruda's 100 Love Sonnets
Review: This is a beautifully crafted book. If you want to impress your wife, leave one of these love poems on her pillow. A Sure Hit!

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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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