The Lost Neruda Poems

bostonreview.net

42 points·lermontov··8 comments

In my opinion, translating Neruda is a monumental task: the translator might get the essence behind the words, but as a native Spanish speaker, there are dimensions to the way he played with words that I have found, can only be enjoyed by reading his work in its native tongue.

Just in Spanish w/o translation, Seix Barral edited them in "Tus pies toco en la sombra y otros poemas inéditos" ISBN 9788432224232

To name yourself after a poet that inspired you must be the ultimate compliment that one poet can pay to another.

The titular poem is so quintessentially Neruda. Thanks for sharing this article.

Slightly out of topic but I recommend the novel Ardiente Paciencia (also known as El Cartero de Neruda).

Poetry: The art of making writing extremely convoluted and obfuscated. Hell, sometimes writers themselves don't even know how to "interpret" those beasts.

Simplicity is underrated.

For me, art (including poetry) can be described like this:

1. Your brain is some mesh of neurons that is approximately structured to process everyday information (normal vision, standard language, etc)

2. Art is non-everyday information that flows through your brain in an atypical way.

3. This atypical information flow can trigger mental states that would be hard to achieve with typical information flow.

That said, whether that achieved mental state is valuable to the observer is a matter of taste.

I understand. I feel that way with music, some good films and good books. But can poetry (which for most people you have to fight your way through a dictionary to get a glimpse about the actual meaning of the poem) really replicate the same feeling?

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