Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair: Dual Language Edition (Penguin Classics)

Loved it! Unusual considering I'm not usually fond of poetry. Like a good yoga pose, the content is emotionally arousing. I think something may be lost in translation and I therefore chose the original Spanish version of the book.

Neruda wrote Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair with the passion of his youth. These are romantic poems that are full of erotic passion and longing. The 20 love poems describe remembered love affairs with two women, a girl from the poet's native town of Temuco and a classmate at the University of Santiago. The beautiful words and vivid imagery are poignant and haunting.
These words will make one think:
"I no longer love her, that's certain, but maybe I love her. Love is so short, forgetting is so long."
Definitively a great collection!

Joyce Akesson, author of Love's Thrilling Dimensions

"Clasping my arms like a climbing plant
the leaves garnered your voice, that was slow and at peace.
Bonfire of awe in which my thirst was burning.
Sweet blue hyacinth twisted over my soul."
(from "I Remember You As You Were")

After watching "The Postman" I became interested in purchasing my first book of Pablo Neruda's poems. Needless to say I went into the experience with very high expectations.

The poems are awash with nature images and much less erotic than I expected. Most seem more romantic and at times captivating. They do demand your full attention as they present vivid images one after the other and reading the poems more slowly has many advantages. At times I was surprised by their complexity.

"The moon turns its clockwork dream.
The biggest stars look at me with your eyes.
And as I love you, the pines in the wind
want to sing your name with their leaves of wire."
(from "Here I Love You")

Throughout the book there are illustrations by Pablo Picasso. They don't really seem to mirror the meanings in the poems and yet they seem to express the language of the body.

I expected the poems to be less veiled in mystery and more infused with images of erotic love. Still these poems can be enjoyed for their passionate intimacy and natural sensuality.

~The Rebecca Review

This book was very beneficial as I translated some of the poems myself. It allowed me to compare differences in the two translations and choose which was most accurate.

Our Spanish is weak, mine much weaker than hers, but the language speaks, the tone of the language sings, as we sit on a beach and share these beatiful poems, in words we understand, and sounds we listen to.