Early Poems 1935-1955

Paz, Octavio; Rukeyser, Muriel

ISBN 10: 0811204782 / ISBN 13: 9780811204781

Published by New Directions, 1973

About this Item

Satisfaction Guaranteed or your money back.

Seller Inventory # 0811204782

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Early Poems 1935-1955
• Publisher: New Directions
• Publication Date: 1973
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0811204782
• ISBN 13: 9780811204781
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

“The growth of the work of Octavio Paz,” writes Muriel Rukeyser in her preface to this bilingual selection of the Mexican poet’s Early Poems, “has made clear to an audience in many languages what was evident from the beginning … he is a great poet, a world-poet whom we need. The poems here speak––as does all his work since––deeply, erotically, with grave and passionate involvement.” In this, a much revised edition of the earlier Selected Poems (Indiana University Press, 1963), Miss Rukeyser has joined to her own translations those of Paul Blackburn, Lysander Kemp, Denise Levertov, and William Carlos Williams, while many of the readings embody Paz’s own revisions of the original texts. The poems were chosen from eight separate collections, among them Condición de nube (“Phase of Cloud”), Semillas para un himno (“Seeds for a Psalm”), Piedras sueltas (“Riprap”), and Estación violenta (“Violent Season”).

About the Authors

Octavio Paz (1914-1998) was born in Mexico City. He wrote many volumes of poetry, as well as a prolific body of remarkable works of nonfiction on subjects as varied as poetics, literary and art criticism, politics, culture, and Mexican history. He was awarded the Jerusalem Prize in 1977, the Cervantes Prize in 1981, and the Neustadt Prize in 1982. He received the German Peace Prize for his political work, and finally, the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1990.

Muriel Rukeyser (1913-1980), described by The New York Times as “a brilliant mind fiercely at work,” was the author of several collections of poetry, plays, fiction, three books of biography, children’s stories, a libretto for a musical about Houdini, a book-length manifesto on poetry, and the translator of a wide range of poets, including Octavio Paz and Gunnar Ekelöf.