20 Poemas de Amor Y Una Canción Desesperanda

Book excerpt: Few writers of any age have described the pleasures and torments of erotic love with such unsentimental directness and sensual precision as Pablo Neruda. In this poetry, too, he is at his most accessible, the language of his odes and lyrics refined to the point at which it achieves what one critic has called 'the naturalness of song.' This short selection draws on work from throughout his writing career, from the famous early collection, Twenty Love Songs and a Song of Despair of 1924 to key works of his maturity like Elemental Odes from 1954 and the autobiographical Memorial de Isla Negra. These ten poems formed the subtext for the well-known film Il Postino which was based on an apocryphal episode in the life of the Chilean poet and Nobel Laureate. They reveal why many believe that Neruda was the finest love poet of the century.