The Oxford Book of Latin American Poetry

It is a literary and poetic companion! There is nothing negative in it!

If your only language is English, this collection might just be what you want. If, however, you would like to read the Spanish and Portuguese originals alongside the English translations, do not purchase this book. The original poems appear at the bottom of the page, in solid blocks of text that looks like prose, with verses separated by a single slash (/) and stanzas by a double (//). It is as if the originals were reduced to prose poneys for the translations. While the selections range from some pre-Columbian selections to the present, the anthology is heavily weighted toward the 20th century. Fair enough. The selection seems to be more based on the quality of the English translations than the significance of the original poems, making clear that the anthologists' (or perhaps publisher's) focus is on the translated works rather than the original. A reader of Spanish and Portuguese, however, is left wondering why many favorite poems are omitted. The result is a rather lopsided view of Latin American poetry. Is this really what a 'bilingual' edition should be. The treatment of the original poems seems disrespectful.

Great book! It provided me with the information that I was looking for and is an easy read. Not every book has all of the information that you may need, but it is definitely a good start.

I completely agree with the well-deserved one-star review of this ugly and misguided book by Qos Toshi. The original language poems are truly squashed and close to unreadable. Shame on the editors of this mess. Verdaderamente vergonzoso! A few other pathetic features. The table of contents presents a long list of poets and poems in no order packed together and difficult to read. AND there is neither an index of poets with page numbers nor an index of titles of works. I think it was aborted before completed perhaps by the Oxford Press. DON'T BUY IT unless it's my used copy at a library book sale for $2.00. Although limited to 20th century, a better choice is Tapscott, Twentieth Century Latin American Poetry.

I've been with this book for a number of years, occasionally dipping in to find rare gems I'd never know of otherwise and find that the other reviews (though to each her own, I guess) must have a bone to pick. OK, maybe the format of the Spanish originals is weird, but the book sets out to introduce Latin American poetry, and a very wide range of it, to English speaking audiences who are not scholars with an extensive knowledge of our neighbors to the south. Since the book definitely does introduce us, me certainly, to interesting work of which I would be otherwise unaware, it serves its purpose well. Although I can read Spanish fairly well, I have neither the patience nor time to go deep into a reading of Latin American literary history in source texts and I appreciate Grosman and Vicuna's selections that allow me to easily skim a surface and dive in where interest takes me. The translations are, by and large, as excellent English poems as the source material allow. To quibble about these points seems at once defensive and elitist, certainly disingenuous.I really don't think anyone--again in disagreement with the other reviewers--that anyone could adequately represent such a rich and diverse history as Latin America's...or any other region and time so large. To name a few, I've encountered Beckett's translations of Sor Juana, the rural Venezuelan Enriqueta Arvelo Larriva, the vicious sensuality of the 17th century Brazilian Gregorio de Matos, multimedia works of Zurita and, of course, the wonderful transmutations of the Argentine avant-garde, Perednik and Girondo, by Molly Weigel. My only problem with the book is that it, in its urge to comprehensive coverage inevitably includes much that is of such a regional resonance that one hardly hears it, but that's more the fault of the poets included than the anthologists.

A pity. This book should have been what it promises. Uneven selection: most of it is XXth Century, and this pick is tilted and -to say the least- gross, not only it does not show the vast richness and diversity one would have expected, but does not rise to a respectable leve. Really a pity.

I had waited for this book with delighted impatience. It was such a joy when it arrived; until I opened it.The original poems - the focus of this book - are sort of thrown in a heap at the bottom of the page, crumpled like beer cans - formatted as small-font word strings separated by slashes. Disrespectful and virtually impossible to enjoy.In contrast, the English versions are lavishly installed, each given the proper space and displayed in an easily-legible font. I tried to make the best of it, but it was too irritating - at least for me. I returned the book.How can this happen? I can only surmise that publishing such a book is a complicated political (as in funding&academic politics) project, and so a lot of kowtowing must be done to those who wield power in this field. And wouldn't you know it, they do a bit of translation themselves, or have friends who do, or they finally get a chance to pay respect to a dearly departed acquaintance.In short, the book looks as a celebration of the craft of English-speaking translators, English-speaking literary scholars, and layout artists. While that yet-unpolished raw material - the Spanish text - is, sure, included - but as an afterthought, for reference sake, compressed to save as much space as possible.Funny: a comment on Amazon.com chastises those who - like me - find this distasteful, accusing them of "elitism". Elitism does seem an appropriate label - but for the editors of this book (and if I am right, their friends in high places).

Though most translations are really high-quality, done by top scholars and translators, this book's layout leaves much to be desired. Translated poems have been given far more room than the originals, which have been squeezed into the page (as some other reviewers have correctly put it). As a translation student, it did meet my needs, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who wants to read the Spanish or Portuguese originals. If you're looking for a Brazilian poetry anthology, I highly recommend "Poetas do Brasil", by Frederick Williams, whose layout is much friendlier.