Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair Dual-Language Edition

by Neruda, Pablo; Merwin, W.S.; Garcia, Cristina

• ISBN13: 9780143039969
• ISBN10: 0143039962
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-12-26
• Publisher: Penguin Classics

Summary

The Nobel Prize–winning poet’s most popular workWhen it appeared in 1924, this work launched into the international spotlight a young and unknown poet whose writings would ignite a generation. W. S. Merwin’s incomparable translation faces the original Spanish text. Now in a black-spine Classics edition, this book stands as an essential collection that continues to inspire lovers and poets around the world.

Author Biography

Pablo Neruda (1904-û1973) has been called by Gabriel Garc+¡a M+írquez -ôthe greatest poet of the 20th century in any language.-ö An outspoken communist, he served briefly in the Chilean congress and in 1971 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
W. S. Merwin has received numerous awards for his poetry, including the Pulitzer Prize. He has translated widely from many languages.
Cristina Garc+¡a is the author of three novels, including Dreaming in Cuban, which was a finalist for the National Book Award.

Excerpts

The Morning is Full

The morning is full of storm
in the heart of summer.

The clouds travel like white handkerchiefs of good-bye,
the wind, traveling, waving them in its hands.

The numberless heart of the wind
beating above our loving silence.

Orchestral and divine, resounding among the trees
like a language full of wars and songs.

Wind that bears off the dead leaves with a quick raid
and deflects the pulsing arrows of the birds.

Wind that topples her in a wave without spray
and substance without weight, and leaning fires.

Her mass of kisses breaks and sinks,
assailed in the door of the summer's wind.

Es La Mañana Llena

Es la mañana lleno de tempestad
en el corazón del verano.

Como pañuelos blancos de adiós las nubes,
el viento las sacude con sus viajeras manos.

Innumerable el corazón del viento
latiendo sobre nuestro silencio enamorado.

Zumbando entre los árboles, orquestal y divino,
como una lengua llena de guerras y de cantos.

Viento que lleva rápido robo la hojarasca
y desvia las flechas latientes de los parajos.

Viento que le derriba en ola sin espuma
y sustancia sin peso, y fuegos inclinados.

Se rompe y se submerge su volumen de besos
combatido en la puerta del viento del verano.