Still Another Day

Pablo Neruda, William O’Daly, trans.

The first authorized English translation of Pablo Neruda’s Aun (Still Another Day), this bilingual edition is translated by William O’Daly. Confronted with his own mortality, Neruda wrote these twenty-eight cantos in two days in July 1969, in an inward expedition to find his deepest roots. The poet evokes the Araucanian Indians and the conquistadores who tried to enslave them, while drawing heavily upon Chilean folklore, the places and people of his childhood, and the sights and smells of the marketplace.
 
Una traducción completa al inglés de
Aún de Pablo Neruda aparece en una edición bilingüe por el traductor notable William O’Daly. La única traducción autorizada de Aún. Confrontado con su mortalidad, Neruda escribió estos 28 cantos en dos días en julio 1969, una expedición hacia el interior para buscar sus raíces más hondos. El poeta evoca a los indianos Araucanios y a los conquistadores que trataron de esclavizarles. Los poemas tienen influencias del folclore chileno, los lugares y personas de su niñez, y las vistas y aromas del mercado.

ISBN: 9781556592249

Format: Paperback

XV

We, the mortals, touch the metals,
the wind, the ocean shores, the stones,
knowing they will go on, inert or burning,
and I was discovering, naming all these things:
it was my destiny to love and say goodbye.

About the Author

Pablo Neruda was born Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto in Parral, Chile, in 1904. He served as consul in Burma (Myanmar) and held diplomatic posts in various East Asian and European countries. In 1945, a few years after he joined the Communist Party, Neruda was elected to the Chilean Senate. Shortly thereafter, when Chile’s political climate took a sudden turn to the right, Neruda fled to Mexico and lived as an exile for several years. He later established a permanent home …

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About the Translator

William O’Daly has translated eight books of the late-career and posthumous poetry of Chilean Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda and most recently Neruda’s first volume, Book of Twilight—a finalist for the 2018 Northern California Book Award in Translation—all published by Copper Canyon Press. O’Daly’s chapbooks of poems include The Whale in the Web, also published by Copper Canyon, The Road to Isla Negra, Water Ways (a collaboration with JS Graustein), and Yarrow and Smoke, the latter three published by Folded Word …

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Reviews

“It is perhaps the finest long poem Neruda has written in the past twenty years. There are few tricks of style and no verbal pyrotechnics; the lines flow with patterned rightness, swept along by the sad intensity of feeling. Detached yet wholly involved, Neruda has never looked quite so deeply into himself before, nor seen so clearly how the land where he was born has always moved and steered him.” —Robert Pring-Mill

Aun, Pablo Neruda’s long patriotic poem… is a soaring and inspiriting tribute to the Chilean people, their history and their survival.” —Publishers Weekly

“There are vast histories in these short poems… Neruda’s lyricism wakes us up, even in the face of death, to the connections we have with our land, inner and outer.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review

“William O’Daly has provided a perceptive and skillful translation. This, combined with the beautiful design of the book and the whole ambience it creates, makes the work even more heartfelt and meaningful… A pensive farewell to those who found joy in his poetry, his own life, Chile, and above all the common people.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“… you tiptoe up to Neruda’s poetry in hushed awe as if you were approaching a sacred presence… There are many… remarkable moments in the volume, moments when the translator discloses his intimacy with poetry in English and his perception of the emotive impact of Neruda’s lines, and I am filled with admiration for his skill, sense and sensibility.” —Edith Grossman, Latin American Literature and Arts

“Like the country and the premier poet who records its history, these verses are sad and noble.” —Booklist

“These last marvelous poems, full of the earth and of passion…” —Sipapu

“[O’Daly’s] fluency in Spanish has helped him do a fine job in maintaining not just the meaning of this poem, but also its rhythms and textures.” —Spokane Spokesman-Review