Then Come Back: The Lost Neruda Poems

“This is Neruda at his finest, his eloquence and passion skillfully arranged in an accessible yet profound package.” ―Publishers Weekly

“This brief visit with Neruda ends all too soon, yet reminds one why his work still matters.” ―Washington Post

“They are vintage Pablo Neruda, literally and figuratively . . . he makes poetry fans swoon.” ―NPR

This stunning collection gathers never-before-seen poems, discovered within the Pablo Neruda Foundation’s archives in Chile. Neruda is renowned for an oeuvre that casts away despair, celebrates living and arises from the belief that there is no insurmountable solitude. Then Come Back presents Pablo Neruda’s mature imagination and writing: signature love poems, odes, anecdotal narratives, and poems of the political imagination.

Written on any paper imaginable―napkins, playbills, receipts―and found scattered throughout the Neruda Estate, these poems offer heartache, Chilean pride, and hope found in the changing of the seasons and the chirping of crickets. The acclaimed translator Forrest Gander beautifully renders the eros and heartache, deep wonder, and complex wordplay of the original Spanish, which is presented here alongside full-color reproductions of the poems in their original composition.

From “1”:

I touch your feet in the shade, your hands in the light,
and on the flight your peregrine eyes guide me
Matilde, with the kisses your mouth taught me
my lips came to know fire.

Pablo Neruda is one of the world’s most beloved and bestselling poets. He won the Nobel Prize in 1971 and died in his native Chile in 1973.

Pablo Neruda was born Neftali Ricardo Reyes Basoalto in Parral, Chile, in 1904. He served as consul in Burma and help diplomatic posts in various East Asian and European countries. In 1945, a few years after he joined the Communist Party, Neruda was elected to the Chilean Senate. Shortly thereafter, when Chile’s political climate took a sudden turn to the right, Neruda fled to Mexico, and lived as an exile for several years. He later established a permanent home at Isla Negra. In 1970 he was appointed as Chile’s ambassador to France, and in 1971 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Neruda died in 1973.