Chilean poet Neruda 1904-73 , winner of the Nobel prize among other honors and whose love poems served as the inspiration for the movie Il Postino, was prolific, and his work took many forms, including the highly political. Stephen Mitchell, translator and reader, has wisely selected from among the various odes and love poems for this extremely well-produced audio offering. "Forgive me, Seagull, I am a poet of reality," he says, after first praising the bird, then going on to describe its barking, its stealing garbage from the mouths of other gulls. Luckily for listeners, Neruda's "reality" permits forays into imagination, such as the baby's foot that thinks it can fly or the suit that might soon wear thin or might outlive its owner and be used for burial. No subject in Neruda's hands is unworthy of praise, including the onion, the artichoke, salt, socks, or the watch on a lover's wrist. While translations of the poet's work abound in print, and there are tapes of him reading his own poems, this is only the second tape of translations available. A true delight; recommended for all libraries. Rochelle Ratner, formerly with "Soho Weekly News," New York
NERUDA PABLO
Nacido y muerto en Chile Parral, 1904 - Santiago, 1973 , ha sido sin duda una de las voces más singulares de la poesía mundial de nuestro tiempo. Desde el combate directo o desde la persecución y el exilio valerosamente arrostrados, la trayectoria del poeta, que en 1971 obtuvo el Premio Nobel de Literatura, configura, a la vez que la evolución de un intelectual militante, una de las principales aventuras expresivas de la lírica en lengua castellana, sustentada en un poderío verbal inigualable, que de la indiscriminada inmersión en el mundo de las fuerzas telúricas originarias se expandió a la fusión con el ámbito natal americano y supo cantar el instante amoroso que contiene el cosmos, el tiempo oscuro de la opresión y el tiempo encendido de la lucha. Una mirada que abarca a la vez la vastedad de los seres y el abismo interior del lenguaje: poeta total, Neruda pertenece ya a la tradición más viva de la poesía latinoamericana.
