The Yellow Heart

Pablo Neruda, William O’Daly, trans.

In the introduction to this bilingual volume, the translator reminds us: “Neruda spent the last forty years of his life making himself dangerous with his poetry… He came to see poetry as a moral act, with personal and communal responsibilities.” But here, Neruda is at his playful and irreverent best. Whether writing a celebration, allegory, lament or self-parody, the poet declares the strong sense of an improvisational spirit.
 
Pablo Neruda escribió las alegorías, las canciones de amor, y los lamentos en El corazón Amarillo mientras él se preparaba para su muerte. Los poemas en este libro acogen las reacciones múltiples, y muchas veces contradictorias, a la vida llena de las amenazas y los placeres cotidianos, la fama y la privacidad.

ISBN: 9781556591693

Format: Paperback

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

“Confirms the mature poet as a surpassing craftsman with a marvelous range of voice and texture.” —Publishers Weekly

“In turns lyrical, then narrative, Neruda’s latest is a rich tapestry, varied in content and theme but steadfastly first rate… Filled with absurdity and play as well as fear, these [are] exquisite, lucid poems.” —Booklist

“William O’Daly’s introduction, ‘The Improvisational Spirit of Pablo Neruda,’ is an excellent discussion of Neruda’s later poetry, much of which was published after his death… O’Daly’s translations capture both the spirit and the feeling of the original and this volume is thus an extremely worthwhile addition to collections of contemporary poetry.” —Choice

“… the grandeur of Neruda’s poetry at its best… The poet comes through well in O’Daly’s translation. Essential.” —Library Journal

“William O’Daly and Copper Canyon Press are to be applauded for making available this excellent translation… The literary adventure the reader embarks upon here is unlike any other offered by Neruda.” —Calapooya Collage

“Copper Canyon’s crown achievement… has been the publication of William O’Daly’s translations of… Pablo Neruda’s later work. Most special to me of these is… The Yellow Heart which… presents Neruda in all his autumnal splendor.” —Writer’s Northwest