World's End

by Pablo Neruda, William O'Daly (Translator)

Overview

First-ever complete English translation of Pablo Neruda's World's End, presented in bilingual edition.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781556592829
Publisher:	Copper Canyon Press
Publication date:	02/01/2009
Edition description:	Bilingual
Pages:	96
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 7.40(h) x 1.00(d)
Language:	Spanish

About the Author

Pablo Neruda (1904-1973) held diplomatic posts in Asian and European countries. After joining the Communist Party, Neruda was elected to the Chilean Senate but was forced to live in exile in Mexico for several years. Eventually he established a permanent home on Isla Negra. In 1970 he was appointed as Chile's ambassador to France; in 1971 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. William O'Daly is one of the most celebrated translators of the poetry of Pablo Neruda. He lives in California.

Date of Birth:

July 12, 1904

Date of Death:

September 23, 1973

Place of Birth:

Parral, Chile

Place of Death:

Santiago, Chile

Education:

University of Chile, Santiago

Editorial Reviews

This is the first complete English translation of a late work by Neruda, the greatest of Latin American poets, translated by O'Daly, a specialist in Neruda's late and posthumous works. In 1969, Neruda announced that this volume would be a gift to his readers on the occasion of his 65th birthday. It is a mostly bitter book about a "ceaseless" century, with 30-odd agonizing years to go, that has "left us a broken planet/jammed with skeletons." It was a century of failed communication, as "the enemy" lied to us and we lied to our own friends. The ideals of Abraham Lincoln and Walt Whitman were out of reach, and the polarized argued "like two blind men defending/each other's darkness." But at heart Neruda is committed to teaching "classes of light to the earth," so despite dying with every one of the century's senseless deaths, at the end of the day he raises his voice to celebrate the "chroniclers of now," the writers who can right wrongs by taking their inexorable revenge upon the guilty. Highly recommended for poetry and Latin American collections.
—Jack Shreve

Library Journal