The Separate Rose

The Separate Rose

This is the first English translation of this poem sequence which grew out of a trip the Nobel Laureate took to Easter Island (Rapa Nui) in 1971. Alternating between “The Men” and “The Island,” Neruda observes the last remnants of the ancient world in direct opposition to the present, the guilty pathos of our time in opposition to the timeless vital purity of the island itself. In this poem, Neruda comes closest to reconstructing our prehistoric connection with Nature.

The English reader will experience, sometimes with startling comprehension and clarity, the poet’s complex intellectual vision of our human world that continues to pay a very high price for having alienated itself from its origins. O’Daly recreates the somber tones, incriminating surges and compassionate complaints, and the nearly ineffable joy found in the original, in lines which reflect the finely sculpted quality of Neruda’s late work.

“This is pure Neruda at his prime, which is to say, incomparable.”
— Choice

“La rosa separada represents Pablo Neruda at the peak of his art, and William O’Daly has done an important service by bringing it before American readers with such care.”
— The Bloomsbury Review

“A welcome addition to the growing canon of Neruda’s work now available in English.”
— Library Journal

“In his brilliant translation of The Separate Rose, William O’Daly has rendered the wide range of expression that characterizes Neruda’s Orphic tongue and its two voices, one of temporality, oppression, and sadness, the other celebrating mystery and vitality.”
— Sam Hamill