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David's avatar

Neruda is a king among kings and queens of poetry

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Jenny Jo's avatar

I adore this poem and your page, and state my following comment with kind intentions. I wonder if you could balance your The Bookshelf books with more voices from the other half of human writers: women. I adore the books you chose, but we mustn't miss the other half of the story and perspective.

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David's avatar

well said :)

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Chuck Rybak's avatar

Can I ask who the translator is? (Also, all photos included on this site are incredible.)

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Poetic Outlaws's avatar

translated by Alastair Reid

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Chuck Rybak's avatar

Thanks so much!

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Patris's avatar

He makes us wish his thoughts were ours.

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Maha's avatar

I have loved and shared this Neruda poem for many, many years. At one point I had it memorized.❤️‍🔥

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Weston Parker's avatar

Such a good reminder of the noise and activity that surrounds us.

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Michelle Lindblom's avatar

So beautiful and such a peaceful use of words.

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Sue Cauhape's avatar

Thank you for Pablo Neruda. And his moment of silence. .........

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Su Terry's avatar

I love the poems....please let us know who the translator is when the original is not in English. This is very important. Gracias!

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David Picariello's avatar

Walking through the many rain forests of our imagination is in Profound presence.

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Pamela H's avatar

Love this! There is too much “ noise”

In our worlds, both Inner and Outer, and too much death, both Inner and Outer.

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Writer Pilgrim by So Elite's avatar

Brilliant words! I can only imagine what greatness this gives in the original version! Not having seen it before I will try to share with my followers as it is absolutely brilliant and timely so.

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Dian Parker's avatar

“We would all be together in a sudden strange. An exotic moment.”

A consummation devotedly to be wished (said the Bard)

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appleton king's avatar

wish we had this stuff on fortune cookies as kids...but the cookies wudda had to been really big!

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Solero Taylor's avatar

NERUDA Veinte poemas de amor y una cancion desesperada *

In order to be offended by the courting couples on Werneth Low

You'd need to seriously search with a torch and a willingness

To stray off the regular paths and find the sheltered hollows

That protected us from the wind and gave us a degree of privacy

And even then, there was a chance all we'd be doing was talking

I remember she used to tell me she wanted to make love

But she needed to feel she was ready, didn't harbour doubts

I had no idea when ready would happen. I did my best

With just kissing and my hands. She let me unzip her jeans

The week that Pablo won the Nobel Prize for Literature

And I really thought we'd got somewhere. But no

The next time we were back exactly where we started

None of us had read Neruda

The man with the torch thought he came from India

* Twenty Love Poems and a song of Despair, 1924

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