Poet in New York: A Bilingual Edition (Paperback)

by Federico Garcia Lorca (Author), Greg Simon (Translator), Steven F. White (Translator)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Garcia Lorca's long out-of-print poetic sequence about New York City, newly translated in this bilingual edition, is as contemporary as today's headlines: slums, racism, violence and cries of loneliness punctuate this verse. Written during the Spanish playwright's nine-month stopover in 1929-30, and steeped in surrealistic technique, his unrelentingly negative antihymn reads the urban condition as symbolic of our culture's materialistic corruption of love and its degradation of nature. Yet one can question the current validity of Garcia Lorca's howl of protest. In vocalizing the stifled rage of Harlem, he implicitly views blacks as somehow more "natural" than whites. Conflicted about his own homosexuality, he elevates Whitmanesque love between "camerados" over what he sees as a decadent gay subculture. This effective if somewhat flat translation is accompanied by Garcia Lorca's letters and a lecture he delivered on this lyrical work.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal
The hermetic symbolism and turbulent images surrealistically convey Lorca's nightmarish impressions of Depression-era New York. This new version, more readable, accurate, and literal than prior translationsincluding Ben Belitt's (Grove, 1983), the only other integral bilingual edition availableand enhanced by addenda such as the editor's scholarly notes on the publishing history of the work, may establish the standard against which all future editions will be measured. An auspicious beginning to a planned three-volume series of Lorca's poetical works. Essential. Lawrence Olszewski, OCLC, Dublin, Ohio
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Bilingual edition (June 24, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374525404
• ISBN-13: 978-0374525408
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #733,898 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #27 in

  Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( G ) > Garcia Lorca, Federico

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most complex and rich books of Lorca, January 1, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Poet in New York (Poetical Works of Federico Garcia Lorca) (Paperback)

Federico García Lorca is among the most celebrated Spanish poets of all time. The beauty of his writing has given him a place in the gallery of the best Spanish writers. This book he wrote when he was a student at Columbia University relies on the influence he got from the surrealistic movements that were running on Europe at the time. Thus, it gets far from the poetic language used in his other books, most notably in Romancero Gitano: verses leave the regularity of the romance to explore new and rich arrangements; the metaphors grow more complex and ellaborate, making a delicious challenge to the reader; one can read a poem time and again for days and will still be unsure of its real meaning. Besides this some of the poems reach a new height on Lorca's poetry. To anybody just seeking to discover Lorca and his world, Romancero Gitano seems to be a best approach in my oppinion, but if you know it and like it, I can't help recommending Poet in New York as a new horizon to discover. If your approach to this book is open-minded, you won't be disappointed.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars powerful and chilling account...., November 26, 2004

By	D. Pawl "mariposarosa2" (Seattle) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

After reading "A Poet in New York," I can say this much:
"I don't think I am planning a trip to New York very soon." Lorca's account of the city was so visceral, raw and cruel, I could feel the hauntingly dead interactions between people, and those people's relationships to the material world around them. The accounts of violence in the streets are equally as cold and boldly unapologetic as his observations of the early morning hours when the city is first waking up.

Gabriel Garcia Lorca truly shows that when it comes to the movements as a city with ties to industry, capitalistic gain and material wealth, there is no division between the life of the human being and the life of the machine. There is almost an automated, "conveyor belt" feeling to the mechanical movement of life in the city. As soon as energy is poured into an endeavor, it is also poured out just as easily. People are as disposable as sheet metal. Their blood, their organs and their instruments of movement could be ripped away and demolished as quickly and non-emotionally as one would destroy the framework of a building and it would be of no concern to anyone else.

I believe that Lorca's observations and journal entries are a reflection of not only the mindset of one of the most well known cities in the world, applicable to the 1930s, but is also quite accurately a reflection of the state of the world today.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lorca: A True Definition of a Poet, July 8, 2005

By	Afony - See all my reviews

After reading "Poeta en Nueva York" I found out that it was really worth learning spanish. I am not exaggerating but some of Lorca's verses make me cry. They have so much emotion and fantasy in them, and they talk about experiences that take place deep inside me. The poems are surrealist but that is also what makes them amazing. The best poem is probably "Fabula y Rueda de Los Tres Amigos" where Lorca beautifully conveys his feelings towards his relationships with others and the struggle he sees within them. Strangely enough at the end of the poem he describes a lot of events concerning his death which actually coincided with his murder a few years later. Lorca's relation with the moon reflected through his simple yet overwhelming words is also charming and inspiring. I discovered through them that there was a lot more in that celestial body orbiting the earth than what I used to see before. You will feel that poetry is just flowing out of Federico. He didn't to exert a lot of effort to sound that marvellous and that right.