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Passions and Impression

Pablo Neruda is known first as a poet, but the prose pieces in this collection reflect the enormous hunger he demonstrated throughout his career for new modes of expression, new adventures, new challenges. Passions and Impressions is both a sequel to and an enlargement of Neruda's Memoirs, recording a lifetime of travel, of friendships and enmities, of exile and homecoming, of loss and discovery, and of history both public and personal. Above all, it is a testament to Neruda's love for Chile-for its citizens, its flora and fauna, its national identity. His abiding devotion pervades these notes on a life fully lived.

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Passions and Impressions" brings together more than 100 short prose writings by the great Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. The collection has been edited by Matilde Neruda and Miguel Otero Silva. The pieces have been translated from Spanish into a wonderfully inviting English by Margaret Sayers Peden.

These essays and prose poems cover many topics: Chilean politics, history, and geography; the work of other creative minds, such as poet Walt Whitman, sculptor Alberto Sanchez, and painter Nemesio Antunez; and the art of poetry itself. Many of the selections are important historical documents of Neruda's own political struggles in Chile. Also included is his 1971 Nobel address, "Poetry Shall Not Have Sung in Vain."

I was particularly interested in Neruda's words of praise for other Latin American writers, such as Gabriela Mistral, the "magical" Julio Cortazar, and the "extraordinary" Mario Vargas Llosa. I was moved by his reflection on the death of Martin Luther King, Jr. And I was delighted by such personal memories as a feast of onion dishes on the island of Capri, or an emotional poetry reading in Temuco. There are also moments of humor, such as a priceless anecdote about Federico Garcia Lorca (in the essay "Latorre, Prado, and My Own Shadow").

In the essay "It Is Worthwhile to Have Lived, Because I Have Love" (included in this volume), Neruda declares, "Poetry will water the fields and give bread to the hungry." The writings of Pablo Neruda, both poetry and prose, have been both bread and water to the souls of people all over the world. His expansive vision truly embraced what he called the "universal struggle" of all women and men. He is an enduring poet/prophet, and "Passions and Impressions" is a magnificent testament. --Reviewer: Michael J. Mazza from Pittsburgh, PA USA