Synopses & Reviews
Some Beasts
It was the twilight of the iguana.
From the rainbow-arched battlements
his tongue like a dart
plunged into the greenness,
the monastic ant-swarm walked
through the jungle with melodious feet,
the guanaco, thin as oxygen
in the wide gray heights,
moved wearing boots of gold,
while the llama opened his guileless
eyes in the transparency
of a world filled with dew.
The monkeys braided a thread
endlessly erotic
along the shores of the dawn,
demolishing walls of pollen
and scaring off the violet flight
of the butterflies of Muzo.
It was the night of the alligators,
the night pure and pullulating
with snouts emerging from the slime,
and out of the sleepy marshes
an opaque noise of armor
returned to the earth it came from.
The jaguar touched the leaves
with his phosphorescent absence,
the puma runs on the branches
like a devouring fire
while inside him burn
the jungle's alcoholic eyes.
The badgers scratch the feet
of the river, sniff out the nest
whose throbbing delight
they'll attack with red teeth.
And in the depths of the all-powerful water,
like the circle of the earth,
lies the giant anaconda,
covered with ritual mud,
devouring and religious.
Review
"No subject in Neruda's hands is unworthy of praise, including the onion, the artichoke, salt, socks, or the watch on a lover's wrist....A true delight..." Library Journal
Synopsis
Praise for Stephen Mitchell's translation of Rilke:
"Perhaps the most beautiful group of poetic translations this century has produced."
-- Chicago Tribune
"This is, without any doubt, the best English rendering of Rilke. It is as faithful to the original as the translation of poetry can hope to be, faithful not only to its linguistic meaning but to its poetic expressiveness."
-- Erich Heller,
Poetry Synopsis
< p=""> Praise for Stephen Mitchell& #39; s translation of Rilke: < blockquote=""> < i=""> Perhaps the most beautiful group of poetic translations this century has produced.<> & #160; < br=""> -- Chicago Tribune< lockquote=""> < p=""> < blockquote=""> < i=""> This is, without any doubt, the best English rendering of Rilke. It is as faithful to the original as the translation of poetry can hope to be, faithful not only to its linguistic meaning but to its poetic expressiveness.<> < lockquote=""> < br=""> -- Erich Heller, < i=""> Poetry<> & #160; < p="">
About the Author
Pablo Neruda (1904-1973), one of the most beloved poets of the twentieth century, was born in Parral, Chile. ?He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1971.
Pablo Neruda (1904-1973), uno de los poetas más renombrados del siglo veinte, nació en Parral, Chile. En 1950 compartió el Premio Internacional de la Paz con Paul Robeson y Pablo Picasso, y en 1971 fue galardonado con el Premio Nobel de Literatura.
Stephen Mitchell's many books include the bestselling Tao Te Ching, Gilgamesh, and The Second Book of the Tao, as well as The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke, The Gospel According to Jesus, Bhagavad Gita, The Book of Job, and Meetings with the Archangel.