Customer Reviews

Platero and I

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First of all, track down this older translation. I've read other translations of Platero and I and this is the one that really brings the Spanish classic to life. Its longer, flowing sentences bring out the true lucid beauty of the text.

As for the book, it is a special work to be not only read but cherished. It is a simple but deeply profound book, meditating on nature, solitude, tranquility, and love between the man and his donkey. The language is almost as beautiful as the nature it so eloquently describes. Each "chapter" is a prose poem that is full of exquisite observation, tranquil and isolated emotion, village vignettes, gentle melancholy, or deep happiness. Each chapter is enhanced by simple but pretty illustrations. The reader will feel that he is there, experiencing the deep sensory experiences that come with solitude and nature, or the peaceful, understanding bond that exists between the man and Platero, each the only true friend for the other. There is true beauty in these words, pure, raw observation and sensation.

In short, read this book and you'll understand what they mean when they refer to the simple things in life. Read this book and it may be the closest you'll ever come to grasping that ever-transcendent beauty. Read this and pass it on to your loved ones. Read this and...take it slow. Appreciate and observe what is around you. Don't get caught up in more than you can take on and live a peaceful life.

The First Complete English Translation and the Authorized American Edition of the most famous work of the 1956 Nobel Prize Winner.

"If there are in world literature two or three books capable of giving back to the people their childhood soul, Platero and I is among them," commented the noted French journal Figaro recently.

This poignant, delicately perceptive book--an unforgettable portrait of life in and around the remote Spanish town of Moguer, seen through the eyes of the author as he talks to his silver-gray donkey Platero--is unquestionably the most famous work of Juan Ramon Jimenez, giant of twentieth-century Spanish letters and winner of the 1956 Nobel Prize. Time has called it "one of the great classics of modern Spanish Literature," while Figaro states that it ranks next to Don Quixote in the hearts of Spanish-speaking people.

Now, thirty years after its original publication in Spanish, Platero and I at long last comes into its own in the English speaking world through Miss Roach's superb translation, called by Franciso Aguilera "a remarkable achievement."

Aguilera, prominent Spanish man of letters, close friend of Juan Ramon Jimenez, and now Assistant Director of the Hispanic Foundation of the Library of Congress, declared that he had always thought that Platero and I could not be translated. "Miss Roach's translation," he said, "is faithful to a degree I did not think possible . . . The extraordinary thing is that, in this case, faithfulness to the original (in working, constructions, cadence) did not result in un-Englishness."

Eloise Roach is a teacher of Spanish and French in the Stephen F. Austin High School, Austin, Texas. A quarter-century ago she fell in love with Platero and resolved to translate it. In 1936 she journeyed to Spain and visited Jimenez, who approved the chapters which she showed him and gave her translation his blessing. Returning to the United States, she attempted without success to find a publisher; few Americans then had even heard of Jimenez. It was only after the Nobel Prize was announced that Miss Roach got out her manuscript again and submitted it to the University of Texas Press. This time the complete translation was sent to Jimenez, now at the University of Puerto Rico, and he authorized its publication.

Jo Alys Downs, also of Austin, has contributed eighty-three exquisite drawings in perfect harmony with the text,

Long, long ago I was given a little book called "Platero and I" and spent many calming interludes with it. There were always nuggets of insight or awareness or information in the short chapters. Then, somehow, in various moves and changes in my life, the book was lost. I had forgotten all about it. When I remembered it recently, I ordered a copy and have been so happy that I did. It is all that I remembered and even more. Thank you for keeping it available. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in interpersonal relations or introspection.

Wonderful book, will take your blood pressure down to normal, and give you insight into this incredible animal, the donkey. Been ill treated for all of mankinds time here, but they still stand with head drooped low, they are the Prince of all animals. You will love this story, if you have a heart, and a soul.

Platero and I is not a book to read in one sitting. I read it slowly, each little story over and over. It's lovely images and haunting emotions stay with me for a long time. Wonderful!