Customer Reviews

Sor Juana's Love Poems (Poemas de Amor) (English and Spanish Edition)

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Una excelente producción culterana de poesía amorosa, escrita por la "Décima Musa", Juana de Asbaje, transmutada en monja por obra y gracia de la época contrarreformista. Se ofrece aquí una sarta correctamente elegida de estrofas clásicas de la mejor poesía española, con graciosos juegos de palabras, dilogías sorprendentes, "conceptos", metáforas asombrosas, etc. El esplendor de la lengua española y la frescura y gracia de una intensa voz femenina.

An excellent, cultured, lovely publication of poetry, written by the "Tenth Muse", Juana de Asbaje, a nun changed by work and the grace of the Counter-Reformation. A chosen classic collection of the best of female Spanish poetry is offered here, with graceful word games, surprising dilogues, "concepts", amazing metaphors, etc. The splendor of the Spanish language and the freshness and grace of an intense feminine voice.

The translation of the poems here are just a bit of a stretch, I think. I'd rather read less extrapolation and more proximity to the literal, especially when I begin to feel the translators may have had their own agenda. They may have made the poet's words a bit too explicit. Having said that, Sor Juana is simply magnificent, in this rendering too.

How this got published is BEYOND me! Even with my limited Spanish I can tell that the translations are not just a stretch, but just BS! My boyfriend, a native Spanish Speaker, and studying for his PhD in Hispanic Literature thought it was a joke as well.

Both of these "translators" are jokes. I can't imagine they have jobs!