Synopses & Reviews
In the over one hundred poems contained in
Isla Negra, Pablo Neruda fashioned a kind of poetic autobiography in which he set out to explore and gather the various "lives" or "selves" he had left behind him in the huge span of his writing existence. Written in his "autumnal" period, from the vantage point of Isla Negra, the small village on the Pacific coast of Chile which he came to regard as the center of his world, the book reads like a series of notes in which present and past interact, and is perhaps the most self-confronting of all his collections.
Chilean poet Pablo Neruda (1904-73) received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1971.
In the more than one hundred poems in Isla Negra, Neruda fashioned a kind of poetic autobiography in which he set out to both explore and gather the various "lives" or "selves" he had left behind over the vast course of his life as a writer. Composed during the poet's "autumnal" period, from the vantage point of Isla Negra, the small village on the Pacific coast of Chile which he came to regard as the center of his world, this book reads like a series of notes in which the past and present interact. Neruda, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1971, offers in Isla Negra the most self-confronting of all his collections.
"Neruda moves fast, and Reid follows alertly, ingeniously; his translations in this book are superb."Robert Bly "This bilingual collection of Nobel Prize-winner Neruda's verse forms a loose poetic autobiography and a lovely complement to his prose memoirs."Booklist "[Neruda was] the first great poet of the Spanish language since the seventeenth century."Carlos Fuentes "Mr. Reid is Neruda's most talented and imaginative English translator; Isla Negra exceeds my own high expectations."David St. John, Antioch Review
Review
"'Tho' much is taken, much abides.' Neruda was 59 when he wrote this autobiographical text, a series of evocations and
divagations. The poet is reconciled to his past—he does not regret his blind loyalty to Stalin, brushing aside that dictator's career as a momentary aberration in the history of communism—and he expects us to do the same. Neruda died on Sept. 23, 1973 during the coup that brought Allende down. He was a politician and a poet. This book is a fitting homage to his greatness as a poet. Alastair Reid's translation is admirable." Reviewed by Daniel Weiss, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)
Synopsis
In the over one hundred poems contained in
Isla Negra, Pablo Neruda fashioned a kind of poetic autobiography in which he set out to explore and gather the various "lives" or "selves" he had left behind him in the huge span of his writing existence. Written in his "autumnal" period, from the vantage point of Isla Negra, the small village on the Pacific coast of Chile which he came to regard as the center of his world, the book reads like a series of notes in which present and past interact, and is perhaps the most self-confronting of all his collections.
Synopsis
Reflective later poems of the fiery, Nobel-Prize winning Chilean poet, presented here with the English translations and original Spanish side-by-side on facing pages.
In the over one hundred poems contained in Isla Negra, Pablo Neruda fashioned a kind of poetic autobiography in which he set out to explore and gather the various "lives" or "selves" he had left behind him in the huge span of his writing existence. Written in his "autumnal" period, from the vantage point of Isla Negra, the small village on the Pacific coast of Chile which he came to regard as the center of his world, the book reads like a series of notes in which present and past interact, and is perhaps the most self-confronting of all his collections.
About the Author
Chilean poet Pablo Neruda (1904-73) received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1971.