Scan barcode
wanderlustlover's review against another edition
5.0
Kickstarter 2015-2016;
This was an amazing beach read for the Cape Cod trip recently, which just left me sighing into the sand, and sea, and breeze. My heart was so happy about everything everywhere and I am so proud I helped to put this book into production.
This was an amazing beach read for the Cape Cod trip recently, which just left me sighing into the sand, and sea, and breeze. My heart was so happy about everything everywhere and I am so proud I helped to put this book into production.
wrh121's review against another edition
4.0
The poetry alone is worth reading, but what makes this book amazing is the original poem in Spanish, the translation, and the details on the origins of the poems. I read through this slowly and appreciated getting to read the original text alongside the translation.
goldhattedlover's review against another edition
3.0
While this collection does contain some extraordinary morsels of poetry (e.g. inside the night of all men, I make/ a smaller night for myself), the majority of the work is underwhelming. Most of these poems have been salvaged from old journals and scraps of paper found in Neruda's estate and were likely unpublished because they were incomplete or undercooked. This book is an interesting read because it provides insight into Neruda's artistic process, but lacks the desperate beauty of his fully developed work.
bexapril1's review against another edition
5.0
Absolutely beautiful book -- beautiful poems and a gorgeous layout -- definitely an excellent addition to the Neruda canon
simplyb's review against another edition
5.0
I know, I know, it's another collection of Neruda. You've read his love poems, his political poems, his sonorous verse, his tangible suffering with call to arms, his pleas for his people and his country, his weltschmerz for the people of Chile. So when a collection of his "lost poems" comes to light, you wonder if you should see this as monumental or just flagrant bandwagon rallying of some B-sides written and cast aside.
Well, I just finished it (after having seen/heard a reading of it performed at the ACE Hotel rooftop bar when AWP was in Los Angeles). And to this layman, it's indeed a revelation. The whole book speaks to context: the context of how the poems were found, how they were translated, what poems and chapbooks they abut. Scanned copies of the handwritten notes are sprinkled throughout to see the handwriting of a poetic master. Then, of course, the original Spanish typewritten transpositions and preceded as a section en bloc of the English translation.
Although this collection of poems never saw the light of day by his own hand, there is no mistaking that if he indeed did consider this an inferior representation of his craft, then even his most inferior output still rivals its cousins in mastery. Spanning his various muses, from the risqué to the idyllic to the poetically patriotic, the many faces and voices of Neruda are all represented in this collection of 21 lost and found poems, each with the imagery and the lyricism that we associate Neruda. It's beautiful, it cuts to the core, it uplifts and evokes. When poetry this beautiful is around, it's a wonder we don't all lay our troubles aside and see the world with the eyes that Neruda wants us to use. More than a worthy addition to his remarkable compendium of work, it could just be a postmortem part of his accepted canon. Thanks to Kickstarter supporters, thanks to Copper Canyon Press, thanks to the translator. It is all for me, for you, for us, for them.
Well, I just finished it (after having seen/heard a reading of it performed at the ACE Hotel rooftop bar when AWP was in Los Angeles). And to this layman, it's indeed a revelation. The whole book speaks to context: the context of how the poems were found, how they were translated, what poems and chapbooks they abut. Scanned copies of the handwritten notes are sprinkled throughout to see the handwriting of a poetic master. Then, of course, the original Spanish typewritten transpositions and preceded as a section en bloc of the English translation.
Although this collection of poems never saw the light of day by his own hand, there is no mistaking that if he indeed did consider this an inferior representation of his craft, then even his most inferior output still rivals its cousins in mastery. Spanning his various muses, from the risqué to the idyllic to the poetically patriotic, the many faces and voices of Neruda are all represented in this collection of 21 lost and found poems, each with the imagery and the lyricism that we associate Neruda. It's beautiful, it cuts to the core, it uplifts and evokes. When poetry this beautiful is around, it's a wonder we don't all lay our troubles aside and see the world with the eyes that Neruda wants us to use. More than a worthy addition to his remarkable compendium of work, it could just be a postmortem part of his accepted canon. Thanks to Kickstarter supporters, thanks to Copper Canyon Press, thanks to the translator. It is all for me, for you, for us, for them.
gsanta1's review against another edition
2.0
I like that it has both the Spanish and the English translation.
“As I stood up and be on the boat so nothing but sky and more sky, blue ensnared in the web of tranquil clouds innocent as oblivion.”
You have to read it a couple of times to understand his meaning.
I’d like Neruda to come back and explain, “the dream spins the world again,” because it’s not clear in the poem. Actually, reading the Spanish, the translator messed it up. The dream isn’t spinning the world. The dream returns to go around the world.
Now I’m wondering if this translation is the problem.
“As I stood up and be on the boat so nothing but sky and more sky, blue ensnared in the web of tranquil clouds innocent as oblivion.”
You have to read it a couple of times to understand his meaning.
I’d like Neruda to come back and explain, “the dream spins the world again,” because it’s not clear in the poem. Actually, reading the Spanish, the translator messed it up. The dream isn’t spinning the world. The dream returns to go around the world.
Now I’m wondering if this translation is the problem.
katiearina's review against another edition
2.0
Okay so I guess I might just hate poetry? But reading this was pretty painful. There's a poem about an ear, one about a lizard, and a lot of references to bread.
Maybe it's just too deep for me, but this collection of Neruda feels like one of those Twitter memes where you let your phone's predictive text finish a sentence for you (now with randomly selected line breaks!).
This was for the 2019 Book Riot Read Harder challenge and I am so thankful that's over. No more poetry for me, please and thank you.
Read Harder 2017 (done in 2019): Read a collection of poetry in translation on a theme other than love
Maybe it's just too deep for me, but this collection of Neruda feels like one of those Twitter memes where you let your phone's predictive text finish a sentence for you (now with randomly selected line breaks!).
This was for the 2019 Book Riot Read Harder challenge and I am so thankful that's over. No more poetry for me, please and thank you.
Read Harder 2017 (done in 2019): Read a collection of poetry in translation on a theme other than love