Antonio Machado: Selected Poems (Paperback)

by Antonio Machado (Author), Alan S. Trueblood (Translator)

Editorial Reviews

Review
Antonio Machado (1875-1939) Ýis regarded in Spain as the greatest Spanish poet of the century. Trueblood's volume...can only serve to win readers for one of the greatest of European poets. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
Antonio Machado (1875-1939) [is] regarded in Spain as the greatest Spanish poet of the century. Trueblood's volume...can only serve to win readers for one of the greatest of European poets. (The Literary Review )

Trueblood's discriminating anthology, with its very readable and resourceful English renderings facing the Spanish text, and its lightly handled erudition...is the best initiation into the poetic legacy of Machado for the general reader. (Times Literary Supplement )

Trueblood...makes [the poems] breathe with the same laconic power they have in Spanish. It is no small accomplishment that he has been able to keep his English so wind-swept. (New York Times Book Review )

A magnificent volume. (Modern Language Journal )

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press (March 15, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067404066X
• ISBN-13: 978-0674040663
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #722,493 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pain and peace, February 16, 2001

By	Guillermo Maynez (Mexico, Distrito Federal Mexico) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Machado was perhaps the most "poetic" among all the poets from Spain's "Generation of 98" movement. His are simple poems of love, the countryside, clouds, mountains, rivers, about the absence of Leonor, his beloved wife, who died early. This is the Spain which suffers in silence, without the tormented and exhalted screams of other poets, like Leon Felipe. The small towns and cities where Machado spent most of his life come alive in his easy, lucid verses. As said before, the absence of Leonor covers his poetry with the longing of persons, places and things long gone. Not experimental, urban, or visionary poetry: only the intelligent reflections of the poet on his surroundings, past and present.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Antonio Machado-Selected Poems, February 17, 2004

By	Brenda Jo Mengeling (Davis, CA USA) - See all my reviews

I bought this collection of Machado's poems after enjoying "Last Night I Had a Dream" from a different anthology. This edition has both the Spanish and the English translation on facing pages, and knowing very little Spanish, I had to read them in English. Machado's poems are achingly beautiful when he writes of his native Castile in Spain; I can't judge how good the translation is to the original, but the poems are certainly beautiful in English. Selections from his proverbs require quite a bit of reflection, and here I felt at a distinct loss at not being able to read the Spanish. This collection contains poems from throughout his career, so the reader can see where his feelings changed or remained constant over time.

2.0 out of 5 stars Translation is too literate and loses poetic power, September 16, 2008

By	Jack Zgierski (Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Having much admired Machado in different anthologies and translations (by Robert Bly) I was left very disappointed with this translation - it attempts to follow the Spanish too closely and loses a lot of poetic force. Some poems fall completely flat because of the unfortunate translation - in fact I barely recognized a poem I absoluely love: "Rainbow at Night" compare the Robert Bly translation with Alan Trueblood's if you ever get a chance and you'll know what I mean.

On the other hand if you know Spanish this is a good volume.