The sound of ships’ bells, sea waves, and migratory birds fuel Neruda’s longing to retreat from life’s noisy busyness. Stripped to essentials, these poems are some of the last Neruda ever wrote, as he pulled one dream out of another. Includes the final lovesong to his wife, written in the past tense: It was beautiful to live / When you lived! Bilingual with introduction.

Deeply personal, expansive, and universal… majestic and understated beauty.–Publishers Weekly