Thursday, May 24, 2012

The FSG Book of Twentieth-Century Latin American Poetry An Anthology Edited by Ilan Stavans Introduction and Selection Copyright 2011 by Ilan Stavans





The FSG Book of Twentieth-Century Latin American Poetry
An Anthology Edited by Ilan Stavans
Introduction and Selection Copyright 2011 by Ilan Stavans
Farrar Strauss Giroux
New York, NY
Softbound, 728 pages, $25.00
ISBN 978-0-374-53318-2

Review by Zvi A. Sesling

Poets you know, poets you don’t know. Male and female. Spanning the late 19th century through most of the 20th century, Latin American poetry has much to attract both readers and writers of poetry and The FSG Book of Twentieth-Century Latin American Poetry fills that bill to perfection.

First there are the eighty-four authors from sixteen countries who write in Spanish, Portuguese and seven other languages, including indigenous Central and South American ones. Another plus for this volume are the translators who include:  Samuel Beckett, Ursula K. Le Guin, Martin Espada, Willis Barnstone, James Merrill, Mark Strand, Elizabeth Bishop, W.S. Merwin, Richard Wilbur and others.

Aptly edited and selected – and occasionally translated – by Ilan Stavans, Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College, one can thoroughly enjoys the selections of Pablo Neruda, Gabriela Mistral (Neruda’s teacher), Jose Marti, Julia De Burgos, Cesar Vallejo, Juan Gelman, Jorge Luis Borges, Octavio Paz and Carlos Drummond De Andrade, to name a few. There are also many other poets and Prof. Stavans delivers delicious selections, many of which are worth reading several times as they inspire and motivate poets to write and readers to admire the talent in this book.

Stavans’s Introduction: Translation and Power provides, for those who have not had the opportunity to hear his class lectures, the opportunity to read a semester or two of informative poetic history in the context of sociology and politics.  Stavans who grew up in Mexico states that he became familiar with those speaking indigenous languages and this too shows in his selection of poets writing in their native languages rather than Spanish or Portuguese. Of interest to readers too is the inclusion of Ladino poetry, the equivalent of Eastern European Yiddish, but used mostly by Spanish and Portuguese speakers and writers. 

Reading these poems you can taste the flavors of Latin America and savor the richness of the poetry presented by Stavans. Whether or not you are familiar with Latin American poetry, this is a must have book for your shelf, and take the time to read it all thoroughly.

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Zvi A. Sesling is author of King of the Jungle (Ibbetson Street, 2010), Across Stones of Bad Dreams (Cervena Barva, 2011) and the soon to be published Fire Tongue (Cervena Barva). He is Editor of Muddy River Poetry Review and Bagel Bards Anthology #7.

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