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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 861
EAN: 9780802130358
ISBN: 0802130356
Label: Grove Press
Manufacturer: Grove Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 464
Publication Date: January 12, 1994
Publisher: Grove Press
Studio: Grove Press
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
This bilingual volume is the definitive collection of the poetry of Pablo Neruda, the 1971 Nobel Prize winner and one of the most profoundly influential poets of the twentieth century. His love poems are earthy and transcendent, and his political poems are the work of a man as incisive, impassioned, and ferociously intelligent as he was sensual. Ben Belitt has drawn the 138 selections in Five Decades from all of Neruda's major works, including the early volumes Residence on Earth, General Song, Elemental Odes, Voyages and Homecomings, Book of Vagaries, A Hundred Love Sonnets, Black Island Memorial, and the later The Hands of Day, World's End, and Skystones.
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
Neruda is one of the most powerful poets ever but if you are reading the English translation, you'd think he was incapable of powerful words. The English translation is a complete abomination, rarely does the full poem ever make sense. The English translator misuses words, adds his own meaning and just butchers any sense of profoundness found in Neruda. Luckily I know Spanish and can sense the richness of Neruda's immortal work.
Neruda's "Enigmas" is rendered nonsensical by Ben Belitt, ... Read More
Rating: -
I could not imagine at first how anything by Neruda could rate lower than four stars, so I browsed some of the translated poems in this book and compared them with other translations. Most of the other reviewers are right. The English versions are unbelievably bad, and that's quite a feat because Neruda's verse is generally economical and unpretentious. I suspect that Babelfish could have done more justice to Neruda on some of these poems.
A good alternative to this would be "The Essential ... Read More
Rating: -
My Spanish reading skills are very basic, and I know that the best translations are not necessarily the most literal. Still, I was jolted by Belitt's language.
The English translations here seem not at all what Neruda intended! They are awkward and stilted where the originals sing. Clarity becomes confusion. Meanings are lost. "Respeto" becomes "deference." "Fria" becomes "glacial." Where repetitions bring a wonderful rhythm to a Neruda original, Belitt feels compelled to switch it ... Read More
Rating: -
One just doesn't get the chance to use a dandy word like "execrable" that often, but there's no better word for Ben Belitt's translations. 'nuff said.
On the other hand, the poems themselves are magnificent. If you have enough Spanish to catch their rhythms you can appreciate them without letting the ghastly translations spoil your enjoyment.
Rating: -
I just sat down for a quiet night of reading some wonderful Pablo Neruda poems while sipping from a soothing cup of warm tea, and I was rudely shocked at the ham-handed translations I found on the pages of this book!
I am not particularly a fan of poetry, but Mr. Neruda's transcendent and passionate work has always held a special place in my heart. I discovered Mr. Neruda's poems in the original Spanish some time ago, but I bought this edition more recently because I feared that the last few ... Read More
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Dewey Decimal Number: 861
EAN: 9780802130358
ISBN: 0802130356
Label: Grove Press
Manufacturer: Grove Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 464
Publication Date: January 12, 1994
Publisher: Grove Press
Studio: Grove Press