Long before he received the 1971 Nobel Prize, Pablo Neruda had attained worldwide recognition as one of the most important figures in contemporary poetry. A fiery poet of leftist politics, he was also a fiery poet of love. This translation of The Captain’s Verses is a major achievement in the genre of love poetry. Neruda originally published the book anonymously, some years before he married Matilde Urrutia, to whom he had addressed these poems of passionate devotion as well as love’s quarrels. The first “acknowledged” edition appeared in 1963. In this collection, the Chilean poet’s brilliant images are expressed with remarkable directness and simplicity. And Donald D. Walsh’s translations, with the Spanish en face, succeed in giving a sense of that simple, lucid strength.