Customer Reviews

The Collected Poems of Octavio Paz: 1957-1987 (Bilingual Edition)

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Octavio Paz has since passed through this world leaving behind a beautiful web of words with the tapestry of things seen and unseen. Paz does an ambidextrous job of mixing in elements of surrealism with the bone of natural objects and that which is very real. His, and the translator Eliot Weinberger ... along with the help of other poet translators to include Bishop, Levertov, Tomlinson--all of their words come alive with beautiful language. The translation seems true to the intent.

What is essential about this book is that each poem comes with the bilingual translation in English and accompanied by the original works in Spanish. Two years of high school Spanish, as well as two years in college, has rendered me with a woefully inadequate ineptitude of all words and understanding of that language. But I don't think that the translation can ever capture the sound, the alliteration, the true tongue/la lingua and fluid language that Paz meant in his original Spanish. Even if I don't understand a lick of what's on the left side of the page in Spanish at least it can be read for it's beautiful sound. Listen to this, "Through the conduits of bone I night I water I forest that moves forward I tongue I body I sun-bone Through the conduits of night" and then on the even-numbered page, "Por el arcaduz de hueso yo noche yo agua yo bosque que avanza yo lengua yo cuerpo yo hueso de sol Por el arcaduz de noche."

What are you doing still sitting here reading my crappy writing when you could be reading Ocatavio Paz? Go get the book...you'll see.

Paz' poetry is sublime, and elegant. The words and ideas simply slip off the page. Its like taking a bath in chocolate.

Paz consistently suprises the reader with new ideas, form, language. Paz creates an atmosphere that is soothing, and enchanting. I would highly recommend this work.

If you enjoy the poetry of Octavio Paz (born 1914- died 1998), this collection is a wonderful addition to your library. Paz wrote literature and won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1990 and he also wrote poetry. Poems are presented in both Spanish and English.

Paz is a lyrical writer and his imagery takes you inside the poem and inside yourself. Take "Between Going and Staying" and the first stanza:

Between going and staying the day wavers,
in love with its own transparency.
The circular afternoon is now a bay
where the world in stillness rocks.

and the last stanza:

The moment scatters. Motionless,
I stay and go: I am a pause.

You can feel the stillness, feel the immersion, feel the pause.

If you are new to Paz and his poetry he is a wonderful poet like the great Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca--both are incomparable in weaving their words into poetic moments.

This is an excellent edition of the collected poems of Octavio Paz, with English translations facing the Spanish originals. I purchased this as a gift for my Spanish teacher and she was delighted! My favorites are his poems written when he served as a Mexican diplomat in India and Japan. His sensitive mind absorbed the nuances of place and religion, which are recreated for us in the poems. His efforts at haiku en espagnol are enlightening, pun intended.

I bought this book after reading an excerpt of one of Paz's poems at a camp. I didn't know what poem it was from, so I bought the book and scoured it until I found the poem. It was Brotherhood. The poetry is beautiful and moving. It is the type of poetry you can read and enjoy no matter if you understand what it is saying, the writing is that beautiful

This excellent edition of the collection of poetry by Paz presents the English translations facing the Spanish originals.
Paz who served as a Mexican diplomat in India and Japan and who also lived in France and was influenced by the surrealistic wave, does not cease to surprise the reader with the elegant places, new ideas and images that he takes up.
An enchanting read!

This excellent edition of the collection of poetry by Paz presents the English translations facing the Spanish originals.
Paz who served as a Mexican diplomat in India and Japan and who also lived in France and was influenced by the surrealistic wave, does not cease to surprise the reader with the elegant places, new ideas and images that he takes up.
An enchanting read!
Joyce Akesson, author of Love's Thrilling Dimensions and the The Invitation

Example 1: "Un cuerpo, un cuerpo solo, sólo un cuerpo,/un cuerpo como día derramado/y noche devorada". Example 2: "Lates entre la sombra/blanca y desnuda: río." Octavio Paz is one of the first voices of the xxth century mexican poetry. He is the most important blend between clasicism and the modern trends in poetical expresion. He lived in France and thus, he experienced surrealism and mingled with the likes of Breton, Éluard, et al. In México he estimulated the literary critic and reviews to new standars of excelence. Read O. Paz.

Octavio paz's poetry is sonorous music. Each word is a shimmering drop of water on a parched tounge, each image is an orb flaoting in the minds eye, beautiful because of its reality, its mere existance, the sweet heft of its mass against the palm. Words like biter cooking chocolate and a pitch from a sad sweet violin, piercing the silence then fleeing, sucking the mind into its wake. And in one notes wake comes another strung together like pearls into a melody. Each note remains distinct, but as if the eyes go slightly out of focus, they become threads in a tapestry of flaming color. Ideas emerge, consepts take form and grow meat and bone and body. The nightingale sings and the poetry is his opous.

Andrzej Pacula Tarnow Poland Rynek