This is the slim collection that made Neruda famous while he was still a young man. It contains twenty short love poems followed by a closing song of loss. The poems circle around desire, memory, absence and the landscape of southern Chile, with the sea, rain, forests and night sky often standing in for the body and feeling of the beloved. The tone moves between tenderness and ache. Its direct, musical language and bold images have kept it among the most loved books of love poetry in any language.