Product Description

A revised edition of this major writer's complete poetical work

"And I who was walking
with the earth at my waist,
saw two snowy eagles
and a naked girl.
The one was the other
and the girl was neither."
--from "Qasida of the Dark Doves"

Federico García Lorca is the greatest poet of twentieth-century Spain and one of the world's most influential modernist writers. Christopher Maurer, a leading Lorca scholar and editor, has substantially revised FSG's earlier edition of the collected poems of this charismatic and complicated figure, who--as Maurer says in his illuminating Introduction--"spoke unforgettably of all that most interests us: the otherness of nature, the demons of personal identity and artistic creation, sex, childhood, and death."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #42900 in Books
• Published on: 2002-08-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 1056 pages

Amazon.com Review
Long regarded as one of the premier Spanish modernists, Federico García Lorca's newly revised Collected Poems is a welcome contribution to this outstanding poet's prolific body of work. This bilingual edition includes many recently discovered poems and revised translations, updating the completeness of the verse produced by Lorca during his short life (he died at 38). Lorca's poetry is quirky, playful, not only filled with orange groves and olive trees, but a strange, physical world where a river has "garnet whiskers" or there exists a "recumbent sky" or "mummified ocean." Lorca wrote love poems, though we can never be sure what exactly is desired. His poetry isn't abstract, but the images are sometimes a bit out of reach--if anything, he tried to give the abstract a physical presence. For example, a lovers' exchange is given dimension in "The Poet Tells the Truth": "Let the skein never end / of I love you you love me, ever burnt / with decrepit sun and old moon." What Lorca wrote of a friend gored by a bull in "Lament for Ignacio Sánchez Mejías" seems applicable to his poetry generally: "I sing of his elegance in words that moan / and I remember a sad breeze in the olive grove." Collected Poems is an important addition to any poetry collection, especially for those unfamiliar with Lorca or those who wish to read the poems in their original Spanish. --Michael Ferch

From Publishers Weekly
As readerly interest in Federico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936) soared over the last 10 years, so too did scholarly attention to Lorca's work. A number of lost manuscripts were unearthed, and new, more authoritative translations, as well as a definitive four-volume collected works in Spanish, were published based on the findings. All this has inspired a new edition of Lorca's Collected Poems. Edited by Christopher Maurer (who also put together the last edition), the new bilingual edition includes the works from Poet in New York (previously published as a separate volume), newly recovered poems (including complete versions of the cycles "Fairs" and "Summer Hours") and some updated translations.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Life in the shadow of death, desire frustrated at every turn, and speech overtaken by the unknown are the concerns of this charismatic Spanish poet and dramatist. In the past decade, Lorca (1898-1936) has become an icon, and because so many new manuscripts, translations, and commentaries have surfaced, the previous edition of his collected poems (LJ 3/15/92) has been expanded and revised. It now incorporates Poet in New York (LJ 2/1/88), a volume of poems he composed during the nine months in 1929-30 that he spent in the city, which he deemed "one of the most useful experiences" of his life. Also included is a more "reliably ordered" version of one of the poet's most ambitious early sequences, "In the Garden of the Lunar Grapefruits," and some new translations by Angela Jaffray, Robert Nasatir, Jerome Rothenberg, and Galway Kinnell. All in all, the revised edition has about 100 more pages of text and about seven more pages of notes. The original edition should suffice for general collections, but for collections specializing in poetry or Spanish literature, this revised version should not be missed. Jack Shreve, Allegany Coll. of Maryland, Cumberland

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Magnificent!
When I first came across this book in my library I was so smitten with it I tried to gulp it all down in one swallow. As a poet myself, though, I am still eating and enjoying every bite. Burdened by the beauty of his metaphors it has been a challenge to read him without weeping. Though my only famil- iarity with him is through the translations in this volume, I am Latin enough to feel the intense passion, sorrow and melancholy he seems to have been possessed of in his lifetime. His struggle with himself, his love for his country and its ancient symbolism, his devotion to the Old Songs, his sadness at the death of a friend who was a Bullfgihter, his generous respect for the Gypsies, are all painted with the deep colors of language ... sometimes sweet, sometimes tongue-in-cheek humerous sometimes sardonic, sometimes satirical ... even ironical. But there is a mysticism that illuminates it all ... even his sorrow shines. He is a true wanderer ... he roams his! own world and ours and leaves us all mystified, a little confused, and wondering.. What is his "green" ... what does it, can it, truly, signify? Will anyone ever know? This volume is an accumulation of poems that demonstrates a rare and prodigious talent. His assassination at the hands of his enemies deprives us of more of his great work. This is a luminour opus! It is a shame it is out of print. Every poet, every wanna-be-poet, should read and re-read this book!

Spanish made easy
I don't know if this is the best way to work on learning Spanish, but it's certainly one of the least painful. It's great to have the original Spanish and the English translation opposite each other. I can't think of a better way to work on your pronunciation than to read these poems out loud to yourself [or others if they're interested]. The musical sound of the poetry makes you love the language and want to learn it. Maybe someday I finally will. In the meantime just reading and speaking it is it's own reward.

Poetry of Lorca is superb!
I usually find most modern poetry boring. Not Lorca's. His poems are short but potent and piercing, full of vivid imagery. His Spanish is difficult to translate literally into English while still retaining vibrancy, but this translator did a good job. The Spanish poetry is presented on the left-hand pages and its English version on the right-hand pages for easy comparison. Not a literal translation by any means, but a very effective one. A strong recommend.