Selected Verse: A Bilingual Edition (Poetical Works of Federico Garcia Lorca) [Paperback]

Federico Garcia Lorca (Author), Christopher Maurer (Editor), Francisco Aragon (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 31, 1996 | Series: Poetical Works of Federico Garcia Lorca (Book 3)

The work of Federico Garcia Lorca, Spain's greatest modern poet, has long been admired for its emotional intensity and metaphorical brilliance. Few poets take us more directly and memorably to what Lorca described as "the dark root of the scream," the terrain of the duende, where inspiration delivers a new poetic reality and "intelligence" discovers its limitations.

For many years, until the recent publication of FSG's Collected Poems, English readers' view of Lorca has been determined by a few well-known books-The Divan at Tamarit, Poet in New York, The Gypsy Ballads-and by a lamentably small number of poems. Now this Selected Verse, the most complete paperback anthology available in English, draws on FSG's two-volume Poetical Works, providing authoritative versions by outstanding poets and translators: Francisco Aragon, Catherine Brown, Cola Franzen, Will Kirkland, William Bryant Logan, Jerome Rothernberge, Greg Simon, Alan S. Trueblood, John K. Walsh, and Steven F. White. In this bilingual edition, Lorca's poetic range comes clearly into view, from the playful Suites and stylized evocations of Andalusia to the utter gravity and mystery of the final elegies, confirming his stature as one of our century's finest poets.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Poet, playwright and composer Lorca (1898-1936), who was murdered by Franco's soldiers, is widely held to be Spain's greatest modern poet. This bilingual volume of poems, the most complete anthology ever to appear in English, features translations by many outstanding poet/translators: Francisco Aragon, Catherine Brown, Cola Franzen, Will Kirkland, William Bryant Logan, Christopher Maurer, Jerome Rothenberg, Greg Simon, Alan S. Trueblood, John K. Walsh and Steven F. White. Featuring poetry drawn from every book of poems Lorca published during his lifetime as well as from his uncollected work, this authoritative edition displays Lorca's extraordinary range and power, documents his aesthetic and technical evolution and reestablishes him as a consummate poet of desire, drama and death. From the lighter, at times whimsical, verse in "Suites and Songs" to the many elegies and laments he wrote, Lorca's singular voice, fiercely emotional and imagistically brilliant, shines through in all its vivid intelligence.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Although this unusually comprehensive bilingual anthology of Lorca's poems contains about half as many as the two previous volumes in the series Poet in New York (LJ 2/1/88) and Collected Poems (LJ 3/15/92), it has nearly three times that of the standard collection, Selected Poems (New Directions, 1961). The modern translations, identical to those published earlier in the Farrar series, sample from all Lorca's poetic output, both famous ("Rider's Song," "Sleepwalking Ballad") and lesser-known (Suites, not published until 1983). Notes have been shortened but updated, and the bibliography has been slightly enlarged. Despite the cloned contents, this compendium serves as either an inexpensive or a more portable alternative to the two earlier volumes of one of the most enduring voices of modern Spanish poetry. Recommended for public and academic libraries.?Lawrence Olszewski, OCLC Lib. Dublin, Ohio
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 343 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1st edition (January 31, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374523525
• ISBN-13: 978-0374523527
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,191,198 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars this is the one to buy, March 10, 2002

By 

supastar (brooklyn) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Selected Verse: A Bilingual Edition (Poetical Works of Federico Garcia Lorca) (Paperback)

I just started browsing through a book of his poems in spanish one day and loved them, but my spanish is marginal. This has the spanish poems side by side with english translations, many of which I don't really like because they do things like switch words and lines and take a little too much freedom and change the spirit of the poem, but that's okay. You can read the spanish, read the english, and see exactly what has been changed, but the beauty is in the spanish ones, and though his vocabulary is large, yours doesn't really have to be to appreciate the sound and sight of these poems in spanish. I love many of the sonnets, plus the king of harlem, which reminds me of HCE from Finnegans Wake, this character that becomes the landscape itself, "after walking", and many others from the poet in new york. I've just been getting into some spanish poets after reading some st john of the cross and seeing what types of flows and life can be infused into words in this language, and these dark, bloody grimy oozes of language have had me high for weeks.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent selection, but with a few dud translations., August 4, 2006

By 

J. V. Lewis (secure undisclosed location) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Selected Verse: A Bilingual Edition (Poetical Works of Federico Garcia Lorca) (Paperback)

This volume has much to recommend it: the selections are just what you'd hope for [a nice cross-sampling of Lorca's forms, styles, voices, and developmental periods]; the introductory essay by editor Christopher Maurer is excellent, concise, and illuminating; and the translations are mostly brilliant. This is almost 5-star material.

I downgraded to 4 stars becasue several translations are too prosaic and literal for this most lyrical and oblique of poets. For example, Greg Simon and Steven White's translation of Danza de la muerte reads almost as flatly as a word-for-word transcription. The tripping rhythms and apocalyptic language of the original poem feel a bit bloodless in translation. Several of Cola Franzen's translations I think adhere too faithfully to the original structure, which doesn't work with English iambs, at least not without sacrificing music.

Of course, one cannot simply criticize a translation. At issue is an insoluble debate between faithfulness to the original in structure, diction, and sense, versus faithfulness to the original in sound, rhythm, and other musical aspects. The two faithfulnesses may be at conflict.

Anyway, this is an excellent selection, flawless except for those disappointingly flat-footed renderings. Can I propose a side-by-side-by-side format? Instead of Spanish next to a single English translation, how about Spanish next to a word-by-word, highly faithful translation, next to a more musical rendering? Sort of like this: Lorca-Simon/White-Ezra Pound? [As in his "translations" of Chinese poems?] Like I said: insoluble.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Garcia lorca doe it again, July 6, 2002

By 

Ms. Oneale (florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Selected Verse: A Bilingual Edition (Poetical Works of Federico Garcia Lorca) (Paperback)

Whether you have children or not Buy this book. If you have children read them the landscape poetry in here. They will sing them in their sleep. It will take them on magical journeys to happy places and you also.