The Yellow Heart

This short book includes 21 poems both in the original Spanish and their English translation. I can't speak of the quality of the translations but the poems are superb. Written after being diagnosed with cancer, these poems offer a certain decision to live ("Now and then, I am happy!"), and a certain freedom. There is a poem of the Ostrogodo family that "spoke so often of the dead ... that a strange thing happened"., of "a naked man who lived for many long years", "a poem of lightening and of disasters of raining ash", of "dismantled Cervantes", and a life in the suburbs. I'd probably recommend reading the poems first, then the introduction, since O'Daly perhaps offers too much interpretation on first reading.

This is a loving work of translation, as O'Daly does what is rare - transform Neruda's mastery of Spanish into a readable English lyricism. Fortunately for the reader, this is a feat O'Daly has accomplished in all his translations of Neruda's posthumous poetry. Compare this work to Ben Belitt's butcherous acts of translation in his "Five Decades" and you will know what a treasure O'Daly's work truly is. Anyone with any knowledge of the Spanish language will see what twisted mutations Belitt has given birth to in his translations. By comparison O'Daly preserves the tone and wonder of Neruda's incantations to life and love. For anyone seeking a start to Neruda, O'Daly's translations by Copper Canyon Press are indispensable gifts. For anyone seeking to understand the complexities of translation, buy Belitt's volume and compare it to O'Daly's transmutations of loving gold. Dan Vera ([email protected])