Selected Poems - Hardcover

Pacheco, José Emilio

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0811210219 ISBN 13: 9780811210218

Publisher: New Directions, 1987

Synopsis

José Emilio Pacheco's Selected Poems is the first major retrospective gathering to appear in an English-Spanish bilingual format of the work of one of Mexico's foremost writers. Born in 1939, his talent was recognized early, and while still in his twenties he was already keeping company with the great Spanish-speaking poets of Latin America. A prolific poet and a perfectionist, Pacheco has since 1962 published seven volumes of poetry, including the National Poetry Prize-winning No me preguntes como pasa el tiempo (Don't Ask Me How the Time Goes By) in 1969. Tarde o temprano, collected poems of 1958 to 1980, contains the revisions on which the translations in the present volume are based.

The Selected Poems is edited by George McWhirter of The University of British Columbia, who worked closely with Pacheco himself in choosing the poems and their English translations. Besides McWhirter's own versions are those by Thomas Hoeksema, Alastair Reid, and Linda Scheer, as well as Edward Dorn and Gordon Brotherston, Katherine Silver, and Elizabeth Umlas. Affirming the poet's stature, McWhirter writes: "In his singularity of vision and multiplicity of poetic forms, traditional and modern, José Emilio Pacheco spans past and present in both Latin American and peninsular Spanish poetry. It is a glittering and giant technical achievement, as brilliant and instantly visible as Hart Crane's The Bridge."

About this title

About the Author

Author of the well-known novel Battles in the Desert, José Emilio Pacheco won the Mexican National Poetry Prize, the Premio José Asunción Silva Award, and the Cervantes Prize. He lived in Mexico City until his death in 2014.

Edition details

• Publisher: New Directions
• Publication date: 1987
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0811210219
• ISBN 13: 9780811210218
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 208
• Editor: McWhirter George