As I mentioned in my Reading List the previous month, one of my favorite poets is Pablo Neruda. Originally from Parral, Chile, Neruda is widely acclaimed as one of the world’s most influential poets and was the recipient of the Nobel Prize in 1971. Neruda’s poetry runs the gamut from sensual love sonnets to politically charged poems denouncing slavery and Latin American exploitation, to odes that convert the ordinary (maize, salt, wine) into the extraordinary. In addition to being a poet, Neruda was a diplomat, and befriended various important political figures and fellow artists such as Spanish dramatist García Lorca and Mexican muralist Davíd Alfaro Siqueiros.

Neruda’s poetry has been published in many languages, so it is not difficult to find English versions of his works. However, it is always best to read the original Spanish alone or in conjunction with English translations, because of the inescapable fact that the language loses much of its feeling through the act of translation. I am a somewhat melancholy poetry-reader: I enjoy poetry that is sad and forlorn. Perhaps that is why I fell in love with “Poema XX” from his collection Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada. His pain is palpable. And for Spanish learners, it is a fun poem to tackle, as the poem uses repetitive, simple language but with frequent tense changes, and it is in this transition of present, past, and future that carries that strength of his emotion. The translation I have used comes from http://www.boppin.com/poets/neruda.html, which does not cite the translator, although another poem of Neruda’s on the same site was translated by Margaret Sayers Peden. It could, however, be the work of W.S. Merwin, who translated the published collection Veinte poemas.