Selected Poems of Ruben Dario: A Bilingual Anthology [Hardcover]

Ruben Dario (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Anagke
The Autumn Poem
Autumn Verses
Ballad In Honor Of The Muses Of Flesh And Blood
Because Of The Influence Of Spring
Birds Of The Islands...
The Charterhouse
Cleopompus And Heliodemos
Colloquy Of The Centaurs
Concerning The Cid
Divine, Psyche, Sweet Invisible Butterfly
The Dream's Blue Bird...
Eheu!
Exploit In The Building
First, A Look...
Flesh, A Woman's Heavenly Flesh! Clay...
For Just A Moment...
The Golden Tortoise...
I Am The One...
I Love The Faces Pallid...
I Pursue A Form...
In Autumn
In Autumn
In Spring
In Summer
In The Constellations
It Was A Gentle Air
Ite, Missa Est
Liminary Words
Love Your Rhythm...
Metempsychosis
My Love, The Night Has Come...
Nocturne
Nocturne
Nocturne
Om
Palimpsest
The Poet Put In His Verses...
A Prayer For The Dead (to Verlaine)
Reincarnations
Salvador Diaz Miron
The Singer Goes All Over The World...
Sonatina
Song Of Autumn In Springtime
Spaniard
Spes
Sum...
The Sweetness Of The Angelus...
To Phocas The Peasant
To Roosevelt
Towers Of God!...
Venus
Walt Whitman
What Gets You
What Sign Do You Give...?
When The Poor Guy Saw Her Pass...
The White Page
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

Product Details

• Hardcover: 268 pages
• Publisher: Bucknell University Press (September 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0838754619
• ISBN-13: 978-0838754610
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,718,715 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This bilingual anthology is long overdue!, February 13, 2002

By 

"kenhern" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Selected Poems of Ruben Dario: A Bilingual Anthology (Hardcover)

"Ruben Dario" is the pseudonym of Felix Ruben Garcia Sarmiento. He was born in Metapa, Nicaragua (today known as Ciudad Dario) in January 18, 1867.

From the inside cover of the book: "One of the greatest poets of all time in any language... [Dario] changed Spanish-language literature forever in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as the seminal figure in the international movement known as "modernismo". Perhaps not since the prodigies of Spain's Golden Age has one poet managed to influence the course of Spanish-language literature so profoundly and permanently, virtually defining poetry both for his generation and for those to follow."

Whether Dario's name is new or already familiar to you, this book will be a joy to read. Amazon.com made this book available for purchase several months before it was actually published. Considering the price of the book, for me it was a purchase purely based on the faith that it would be good. Well, I'm far from disappointed, it's worth every cent!

As a native Nicaraguan who's read much of Dario's work in Spanish, I can honestly say that the authors' translations demonstrate tremendous understanding, sensibility and affection for Dario's work. His poems are presented in Spanish on even-numbered pages and English translations are presented on odd-numbered pages.

The themes of Dario's poems run the gamut: life, love, death, despair, politics, etc. Here's a couple of excerpts:

"VERSOS DE OTONIO"/"AUTUMN VERSES"

When my thought strays to you, it becomes perfumed;
your glance is so sweet, it turns profound.
Under your naked feet there is still the whiteness of foam,
and in your lips you epitomize the joy of the world.

Short-lived love has a brief charm
and offers the same end to delight and sorrow.
And hour ago I engraved a name in the snow;
a minute ago I expressed my love on the sand.

Yellow leaves fall on the boulevard
where so many loving couples stroll.
And in Autumn's cup there is a vague wine
into which your roses, Springtime, will drop their petals.

"LO FATAL"/"WHAT GETS YOU"

How fortunate the tree that is scarcely aware,
and more so the hard stone because it no longer feels,
since there is no greater pain than the pain of living,
nor deeper sorrow than conscious life.

Being, and knowing nothing, and being without a true course,
and the fear of having been, and a future terror...
And the certain dread of being dead tomorrow,
and suffering because of life, and because of shadow, and because of

what we don't know and scarcely suspect,
and the flesh that tempts with its fresh-picked bunches,
and the tomb that awaits with its funeral bouquets,
and not knowing where we are going,
nor from where we have come....!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The magician's word!, August 1, 2005

By 

Hiram Gomez Pardo (Valencia, Venezuela) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Selected Poems of Ruben Dario: A Bilingual Anthology (Hardcover)

The monumental greatness and expressive power of this giant of the Modernism, still permeates in new generations. Nicaragua was his nest, though his presence is universal. His poetry is plenty of deep significance: "Youth: Divine treasure" exemplifies a simple proof of his genius; three words that hurt and express much more than thousand swords and hundred of front pages.

Dario visited the hospitals of the hell that's why his poetry is so vigorous and strong, having born in a Romantic age, he overthrew this category becoming in a classic.

His tragic mood finds shelter even in the most imperceptible motives; from the morning dew to the brightest star: he writes as Rilke in mythic terms: he doesn't employ any masked subterfuges, or recondite places, he seems to have the astonishing capacity of crossing the limits of the real and emulating to Orpheus, goes and returns without effort to the last boundaries of the word.

Despite the fact all translation is a treason according to a Chinese statement, go for Dario and explore his universe. But if you domain the Spanish idiom the 'pleasure will be exponentially major and gratifying. .

If you require me about the two greatest names of the Castellan Poetry : Pío Baroja and Rubén Darío.