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Pablo Neruda

W

Wabbit

New Member
Hi.

I have just discovered a poet. One, or part, of his poems is quoted inside the cover of a book that is not read yet. The book is The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende. The poet is Pablo Neruda. I had not come across him before. He one the Nobel prize and is regarded as one of the worlds greatest poets, shows you how little I know lol

Here is the quotation I read from the book.

How much does a man live, after all?
Does he live a thousand days, or one only?
For a week, or for several centuries?
How long does a man spend dying?
What does it mean to say "for ever"?

Pablo Neruda.

I did some research on him. He is a great guy! I love his poetry and I think I will have to buy a book of his poetry. I have been searching around the net reading his poetry. Here is another example of his poetry. I love this :)

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

Write for example, 'The night is shattered
and the blue stars shiver in the distance.'

The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.

Through nights like this one I held her in my arms.
I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.

She loved me, sometimes I loved her too.
How could one not have loved her great still eyes.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her.

To hear immense night, still more immense without her.
And the verse falls to the soul like dew to a pasture.

What does it matter that my love could not keep her.
The night is shattered and she is not with me.

This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the distance.
My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

My sight searches for her as though to go to her.
My heart looks for her, and she is not with me.

The same night whitening the same trees.
We, of that time, are no longer the same.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but how I loved her.
My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.

Another's. She will be another's. Like my kisses before.
Her voice. Her bright body. Her infinite eyes.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but maybe I love her.
Love is short, forgetting is so long.

Because through nights like this one I held her in my arms
my soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer
and these the last verses that I write for her.

Pablo Neruda.

What do you think, wonderful, huh? Anybody else like him and read of him?

Best Regards
That ol silly wabbit
 
I haven't read much of his work but what I have read has been very beautiful. A lot of poetry doesn't translate well but his is the exception.

Check out Il Postino, a movie where he is a character. Very sweet and romantic.
 
If you get the chance, read Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair by Neruda. It is one of my favorite books of poetry. VERY romantic.
 
Neruda can write an ode to anything... everything he gazes at becomes beautiful and sensual and observed . Even in translation his poetry clutches at something deep inside of me and gives it a wrench... every time.

buddi
 
Yeah, right :)

When I first discovered him the thing that really amazed me and impressed me was his passion for everything. He writes a poem about a tomato and a poem about a chiar and a poem about a fish or a bottle of wine!

Interesting that within those poems he weaves other ascpets of life into them and bascially comments on all kinds of things.

His later works became very political and he became a poet of the people. The poetry before that was concerned with obects, nature and mans place in the universe.

I have a collected works of his poetry and it's just AMAZING! So beautiful and passionate. I will, for sure, get more of his works.
 
Wabbit, try to read The House of Spirits - I think it's a wonderful book. Loads going on, slightly crazy, just go with your imagination.
 
Thanks for the suggestion! :)

But I already have read it and it was WONDERFUL! I loved it. I will surely read it again at some point. I got another book by her called Eva Luna that sounds really good. Going on holiday soon and obviously taking books with me! That is one that will be going with me!
 
I haven't read that one. Let us know what you think when you've finished it and have a great holiday!
 
Wow, he really is an amazing poet! Thanks for mentioning him, Wabbit! I'll have to check out more of his stuff.
 
That's how I got tuned in to Neruda too- inside an Isabel Allende book. Only that particulur one was My Invented Country and I can't remember the name of the poem. Driving me nuts. Anyone know?
 
My favotite poem of his would probably be Love Sonnet XVII.. so beautiful.

I do not love you as if you were the salt-rose, or topaz,
Or the arrow of carnations that fire shoots off;
I love you as certain dark things are loved,
In secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that doesn't bloom and carries
Hidden within itself the light of those flowers,
And thanks to your love, darkly in my body
Lives the dense fragrance that rises from the earth.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride:
So I love you because I know no other way.

Than this, where I do not exist or you,
So close that your hand upon my chest is my hand,
So close that you close your eyes when I fall asleep.

I think that has to top my list of favorite poems..so beautiful.
The poem of his that confuses me is 'The Light Wraps You'.. I read it a few days ago, and still haven't been able to figure it out. :confused:
 
Pablo Neruda/Isabel Allende

'I was a lousy journalist. I could never be objective. Sometimes I invented the whole story. When I met the great poet Pablo Neruda, he said "you are the worst journalist in this country. You lie all of the time. Why don't you switch to literature".'

:)
 
Pablo Neruda and Isabel Allende are both authors I have been planning to read for a long time. Now I will! Thanks for sharing.
 
I first read this poem when I was about 15, on the back of a Jackson Browne album. It's always stuck with me, especially the opening.




Brown and Agile Child


Brown and agile child, the sun which forms the fruit
And ripens the grain and twists the seaweed
Has made your happy body and your luminous eyes
And given your mouth the smile of water.

A black and anguished sun is entangled in the twigs
Of your black mane when you hold out your arms.
You play in the sun as in a tidal river
And it leaves two dark pools in your eyes.

Brown and agile child, nothing draws me to you,
Everything pulls away from me here in the noon.
You are the delirious youth of bee,
The drunkedness of the wave, the power of the heat.

My somber heart seeks you always
I love your happy body, your rich, soft voice.
Dusky butterfly, sweet and sure
Like the wheatfiled, the sun, the poppy, and the water.

Pablo Neruda
 
I like Neruda, although here in Chile his work is a totally different thing, is different socially and in a cultural way it means a lot to the chilean people. However I don't like Isabel Allende really much, just because there are better chilean authors, with much more depth in their work, in my opinion - and please, just MY opinion here, if offended not my intention - she writes for the masses. Her prose is good, very colorful and nicely structured, but just lacking depth, and way too political, which makes it difficult to discuss, being politics an extremely touchy subject here. Anyway, I don't deny her ability for writing an entertaining novel, but for me it stops there.

As for Neruda, no complains, his poetry is magical and beautiful, a true cultural icon, from his houses and collections - a side of his life that has been used to target the turistic side of Chile - to his favorite dishes which have become a part of the chilean culture. That shows in the different odes to tomatoes and Congrio (a fish). His life has been an icon to the chilean culture, which brings a whole new meaning for his poetry to us.

I hope that this won't be taken the wrong way, because it's just what it is, a comment, from a chilean girl that usually talks too much...
 
You don't talk to much and I really like your comments :)

It's great to have a view of Neruda and Allende from somebody that is actually from Chile And you can discuss politics just as long as it's within the context of a book... so go ahead and discuss it if you wish!

What Chilean authors would you say are better than Allende? My Spanish is really bad so ones published in English please :D
 
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