Twenty Love Poems: And A Song Of Despair - Softcover

Pablo Neruda

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0224074415 ISBN 13: 9780224074414

Publisher: Random House UK, 2004

Synopsis

First published in 1924, "Viente Poemas de Amor y una Cancion Desperada remains among Neruda's most popular work. Daringly metaphorical, these poems are based upon his own private associations. Their sensuous use of nature symbolism to celebrate love and to express grief has not been surpassed in the literature of our century. This edition offers the original Spanish text, with masterly translations by W.S. Merwin on facing pages.

About this title

About the Author:

Born Neftal-Ricardo Reyes Basoalto in southern Chile in 1904, Pablo Neruda led a life charged with poetic and political activity. His first book, Crepusculario (Twilight) was published in 1923. The following year, he published Veinte Poemas de Amor y una Cancion Desesperada (Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair), which turned him into a celebrity. In 1927 he began his long career as a diplomat, serving as Chilean consul in numerous places including Burma, Buenos Aires, Madrid, Mexico and France. He was elected to the Chilean Senate in 1943 but later expelled for being a Communist. In 1952 the government withdrew the order to arrest leftist writers and political figures, and Neruda returned to Chile. For the next twenty-one years, he continued a career that integrated private and public concerns and became known as the people's poet. During this time, Neruda received numerous prestigious awards, including the International Peace Prize in 1950, the Lenin Peace Prize and the Stalin Peace Prize in 1953, and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971. He died of leukemia in Santiago, Chile in 1973.

Language Notes:

Text: English, Spanish

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House UK
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0224074415
• ISBN 13: 9780224074414
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 72