Around the world reading challenge – book 4: The Essential Neruda: Selected Poems

I’ve been reading this book for a long time and slowly, because I couldn’t read it any faster. I couldn’t read it when I was too tired or distracted. It demanded a different kind of attention than reading a novel or most anything else, where each word and each line was there on purpose and if I was not paying full attention, then I was lost. There were a few that I returned to on the topic of writing, words, poetry and a poet’s obligation.

An interesting thing about this book is that it has the original Spanish poem on one the left page and the English translation on the facing page. I know a couple of people who are studying Spanish and might just pass it on. I started this week to tidy in the radical tidying sort of way outlined in the book, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up – just a baby step of going through all my tops. After clothes, comes books. I am a little afraid. Maybe I’ll give this one away. It is brilliant in that way that makes me at times wonder why do I even try to write poetry, but at the same time, I don’t love it. I think it is a good translation. I have read just a small selection of other translations on-line and find them less skillfully done. Let me know if you want this book.  I’d be willing to do a trade.

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