My review of Spanish poet Pablo Neruda

Pablo Neruda (1904-1973) also known as Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto was born in Chile. He was a poet but also involved in politics. He wrote love poems and many from the sea. This collection is bilingual and is perfect for learners of Spanish. I have used some of the poems in my Spanish classes. That is to say one side is in English and the other side is in Spanish. There are 50 poems in the Essential Neruda from some of the best translators around. The collection is divided into some of his most known poetry books, that also range his lifetime. In his first collection of poems called Twenty love poems, love and separation intermingle with sweet sayings and recollections of the sea.

Leaning into the evenings I throw my sad nets to your ocean eyes.

Some of his poems deal with nature, and more specifically the sea. Yet others deal with death, and old age. One of the sections even deals with Macchu Pichu. Macchu Pichu is the great Inca monument in Peru.

And then on the ladder of the earth I climbed/through the atrocious thicket of the lost jungle/up to you, Macchu Pichu.

Neruda even has a poem about the United Fruit Company.

When the trumpet sounded, everything/ on earth was prepared/ and Jehovah distributed the world/to Coca-Cola, Anaconda/ Ford Motors and other entities.

Some of his best poems are about captains and the sea. The poem called The Sea is brief and details the effects of the sea.

The sea comes and reunites our lives/ and attacks and divides and sings alone.

The poems of Neruda do not assume too much, but rather guide the reader into its words and aspirations. It is not a heavy read, but like poetry it leaves the reader eager for more. They are not poems about religion or politics, but rather life, bearing his soul to the oneness of the world.