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erintowner's review against another edition
2.0
I've read other poetry by Pablo Neruda before but this just didn't speak to me. I would lose my place while reading because there were so many images bombarding me. There were two parts that I did like.
knod78's review against another edition
4.0
This completes Task 20: Read a book of nature poems of the Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge.
I will preface this review with I am not a fan of poetry and I have no idea what constitutes a good poem or a bad poem. Therefore, I will not deduct stars based on the fact that this is a poetry book full of poems I may or may not truly understand. I will say that I did purchase this book at Pablo Neruda's house in Valparaiso, Chile. I must have been swept up in the view and history, because Valpo was my least favorite part of Chile and yet, I bought the most souvenirs at his place.
I actually started reading this a long time ago, but stopped, because it was overwhelming to read the Spanish and English translation at once. I decided to start from the beginning and only read the English translation with the expectation that some of the words and sentences will be lost in translation. The translator did a a decent job. Some words I felt like he wasn't looking at the whole sentence and/or the tone. However, sometimes, he did look at the whole stance to get the correct word. Basically, there were parts that were great and parts that I felt he missed. I loved the historical introduction to Pablo Neruda and maybe where he was in life when he wrote this poem. As I read it, I felt like I was walking the trail to Macchu Picchu and seeing the sun rise against the stones. Whether that's what the original poem intended, I don't know, that's how I interpreted it. I especially loved the feeling I got that it was set in Fall with the beautiful leaves falling all around the stones. I love the symbolism to stone and man and ancient vs modern. I could feel the ancient people who inhabited Macchu Picchu coursing through his veins; he talked to them in the past, but he knows the secret that they won't have a future there. Again, it's what I interpreted.
I felt inspired to travel to Macchu Picchu and I guess that's what you can expect from a nature poem. This will definitely help you in the next step of learning Spanish. The Spanish and English are side by side on different pages. If you love travel, poetry, nature, hiking, and ancient times, you will love this.
I will preface this review with I am not a fan of poetry and I have no idea what constitutes a good poem or a bad poem. Therefore, I will not deduct stars based on the fact that this is a poetry book full of poems I may or may not truly understand. I will say that I did purchase this book at Pablo Neruda's house in Valparaiso, Chile. I must have been swept up in the view and history, because Valpo was my least favorite part of Chile and yet, I bought the most souvenirs at his place.
I actually started reading this a long time ago, but stopped, because it was overwhelming to read the Spanish and English translation at once. I decided to start from the beginning and only read the English translation with the expectation that some of the words and sentences will be lost in translation. The translator did a a decent job. Some words I felt like he wasn't looking at the whole sentence and/or the tone. However, sometimes, he did look at the whole stance to get the correct word. Basically, there were parts that were great and parts that I felt he missed. I loved the historical introduction to Pablo Neruda and maybe where he was in life when he wrote this poem. As I read it, I felt like I was walking the trail to Macchu Picchu and seeing the sun rise against the stones. Whether that's what the original poem intended, I don't know, that's how I interpreted it. I especially loved the feeling I got that it was set in Fall with the beautiful leaves falling all around the stones. I love the symbolism to stone and man and ancient vs modern. I could feel the ancient people who inhabited Macchu Picchu coursing through his veins; he talked to them in the past, but he knows the secret that they won't have a future there. Again, it's what I interpreted.
I felt inspired to travel to Macchu Picchu and I guess that's what you can expect from a nature poem. This will definitely help you in the next step of learning Spanish. The Spanish and English are side by side on different pages. If you love travel, poetry, nature, hiking, and ancient times, you will love this.
mary_spitzer's review against another edition
4.0
Very good but I feel like I’m not quite smart enough to fully grasp what these poems are getting at.
carpenoctumpoetry's review against another edition
4.0
One day, I hope to be able to read this in the original language because man was this a whirlwind of a collection, even in the English. The disorienting imagery and exploration of Macchu Picchu made this one of the most unique collections I've read.
oldandnewbooksmell's review against another edition
4.0
Inspired by Pablo Neruda’s journey to Machu Picchu, the Peruvian Inca city in the Andes, The Heights of Macchu Picchu is Neruda’s most famous longer poems.
The version of this poem has Spanish on one side and English on the other - mostly so you can compare the two if you’re able to read both languages. I only speak English and only know a few words in Spanish, so this wasn’t something I was able to take advantage of. But, I’m not doubting Nathaniel Tarn’s translation and believe he did the translation as true as he could.
This long poem, broken up into 11 sections, is all about life, death, and the history of Machu Picchu through the thoughts and questions of Neruda as he visits. You read about the emotions he goes through - from Sections II - V it’s a lot about his thoughts of death and how tired he is of the human world. Then, in Section VI, we get to Machu Picchu and he marvels at how amazing it is and how spectacular it could have been at its prime. But, we go back to sadder sections as Neruda discusses how there’s no living memory of the lives of the Ancient Incans at Machu Picchu, especially since the Incan’s had more oral history than written. He asks the river for its history in Section VIII, and then in Section X askes Machu Picchu itself its history, especially those of the slaves and poor who most likely built and made the location what it was. He calls out to the dead to allow him to be their voice so their stories are never forgotten in the last few sections.
This poem took me a bit to get through - I read it once all the way through in the evening, and then again the next afternoon after doing a bit of research. The second time around, I wrote my thoughts and connections down. That definitely helped me better understand what Neruda was talking about in certain sections, especially when calling out to the slaves and the poor of Macchu Picchu.
After reading this, I can see how this poem is marked as being one of Neruda’s most famous poems. It dives deep into the experience he had while visiting such a historical site of his heritage.