The Book of Questions

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Copper Canyon Press, a Pacific Northwest nonprofit publisher who has been devoted to the enhancement and appreciation of poetry for nearly 30 years, leads the way in poetry translations… These new translations magnificently present Neruda’s late work.” — Source Weekly How thought-provoking did you find the book? Did the book change your opinion about anything, or did you learn something new from it? If so, what? During his lifetime, Neruda occupied many diplomatic posts and served a stint as a senator for the Chilean Communist Party. When Conservative Chilean President González Videla outlawed communism in Chile, a warrant was issued for Neruda's arrest. Friends hid him for months in a house basement in the Chilean port of Valparaíso. Later, Neruda escaped into exile through a mountain pass near Maihue Lake into Argentina. Years later, Neruda was a close collaborator to socialist President Salvador Allende.This complete translation of Pablo Neruda's El libro de las preguntas ( The Book of Questions) features Neruda's original Spanish-language poems alongside William O'Daly's English translations. In his introduction O'Daly, who has translated eight volumes of Pablo Neruda's poetry, writes, "These poems, more so than any of Neruda's other work, remind us that living in a state of visionary surrender to the elemental questions, free of the quiet desperation of clinging too tightly to answers, may be our greatest act of faith." This is supposed to be a book of questions that will tell us about ourselves if we approach them...introspectively and thoughtfully. I can see groups of people sitting around looking at this book maybe at a party and discussing eachother's answers. What a majestic way to end his last collection of the verses... And what a suitable poem for the picture outside my window at the moment... Technology has become a part of us. Would you rather lose the use of all motorized vehicles, all telecommunications devices and computers, or one of your hands?” Q#163: Would you get a tattoo the size of a dinner plate if you knew it would somehow save the lives of a busload of innocent tourists who'd otherwise die? If so, what tattoo design and location would you select?

The English versions of the poems are excellent and can easily be compared to the Spanish original.” — Choice Some few of the questions I did find interesting and thought provoking. The majority however I found...well, pointless even silly. I see many don't agree with me but I looked at questions that made strange assumptions or gave an incomplete premise, or an absurd premise and mostly shook my head. Compare this book to other books you have read by the same author, or other books you have read covering the same or similar themes. How are they the same or different? The Book of Questions… contains 316 questions asked with the poet’s childlike sense of wonder—questions that demand no rational answers, only sincere thought. O’Daly’s work is a must for anyone interested in Neruda’s poetry.” —Elliot Bay BooknotesWould it disturb you much if, upon your death, your body were simply thrown into the woods and left to rot? Why?" Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto (12 July 1904 – 23 September 1973), better known by his pen name and, later, legal name Pablo Neruda, was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician. From your point of view, what were the central themes of the book? How well do you think the author did at exploring them? If you could increase your I.Q. by forty points by having an ugly scar stretching from your mouth to your eye, would you do so?"

If I wanted to attempt to answer questions to make me wonder how I've lived my life and how I treat people, would that make me a masochist? If I am a masochist, how do I effectively balance that with my sadism?When we're confronted with almost any demanding situation, the act of questioning can help guide us to smart decisions in the face of uncertainty. But the questions must be the right ones; the ones that cut to the heart of complexity or enable us to see an old problem in a fresh way. This is a book for personal growth, a tool for deepening relationships, a lively conversation starter for the family dinner table, a fun way to pass the time in the car. It poses over 300 questions that invite people to explore the most fascinating of subjects: themselves and how they really feel about the world. There are some poems one must simply take in visually and revel in the imagery they invoke discarding their literariness. These brief poems… express the Nobel Laureate’s lifelong dedication to revealing an inner structure of feeling that underlies all experience.” — Bookpaper Neruda became known as a poet when he was 10 years old, and wrote in a variety of styles, including surrealist poems, historical epics, overtly political manifestos, a prose autobiography, and passionate love poems, such as the ones in his collection: Twenty Love Poems, and a Song of Despair (1924). He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971.

Have you stopped beating your wife? Follow-up questions: Have you quit smoking yet? Do I look fat in this? Do you think she's pretty? This complete translation of Pablo Neruda’s El libro de las preguntas (The Book of Questions) features Neruda’s original Spanish-language poems alongside William O’Daly’s English translations. Pablo Neruda is one of the world’s most beloved poets, and The Book of Questions is one of the best-selling volumes of his poetry. Composed of 316 unanswerable questions, these poems integrate the wonder of a child with the experiences of an adult. By turns Orphic, comic, surreal, and poignant, Neruda’s questions lead the reader beyond reason into realms of intuition and pure imagination. In his introduction, O’Daly writes, “These poems, more so than any of Neruda’s other work, remind us that living in a state of visionary surrender to the elemental questions, free of the quiet desperation of clinging too tightly to answers, may be our greatest act of faith.” There is an ironic reversal of expectation in this: Many poems have been written to praise the beauty of fruit and flowers, but roots are often overlooked as merely functional. What does it mean to see the splendor of roots? It can be seen as a political metaphor about the economic base upon which the superstructure is built. These are Marxist terms, relevant to analyzing Neruda’s poetry because he was an active member of the Communist Party. So, this short poem can be seen as a nod to the masses who do the work to keep society alive, but whose labor is concealed by ideology. Alternatively, this could be read a spiritual metaphor, or a reworking or reversal of the famous Dylan Thomas poem that begins “The force that through the green fuse drives the flower/Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees/Is my destroyer.” Roots can also refer to ancestry, so it could also be read as a metaphor for an improper shame towards one’s family history.Who was your favorite character? What character did you identify with the most? Were there any characters that you disliked? Why?