W. S. Merwin Books

MANDELSTAM

We do not know the way to the darkness of the word
or the excellent silence
concealed inside our poems
we only know the drumbeat of our own pain
and the flickering madness of a land's best lights lost

All we are and can be
is a poem
that will never come home again.

Stalin's death is Russia's life
The man Mandelstam murdered
His poems living still.

This book was very beneficial as I translated some of the poems myself. It allowed me to compare differences in the two translations and choose which was most accurate.

"Clasping my arms like a climbing plant
the leaves garnered your voice, that was slow and at peace.
Bonfire of awe in which my thirst was burning.
Sweet blue hyacinth twisted over my soul."
(from "I Remember You As You Were")

After watching "The Postman" I became interested in purchasing my first book of Pablo Neruda's poems. Needless to say I went into the experience with very high expectations.

The poems are awash with nature images and much less erotic than I expected. Most seem more romantic and at times captivating. They do demand your full attention as they present vivid images one after the other and reading the poems more slowly has many advantages. At times I was surprised by their complexity.

"The moon turns its clockwork dream.
The biggest stars look at me with your eyes.
And as I love you, the pines in the wind
want to sing your name with their leaves of wire."
(from "Here I Love You")

Throughout the book there are illustrations by Pablo Picasso. They don't really seem to mirror the meanings in the poems and yet they seem to express the language of the body.

I expected the poems to be less veiled in mystery and more infused with images of erotic love. Still these poems can be enjoyed for their passionate intimacy and natural sensuality.

~The Rebecca Review

Our Spanish is weak, mine much weaker than hers, but the language speaks, the tone of the language sings, as we sit on a beach and share these beatiful poems, in words we understand, and sounds we listen to.

In this duel language edition, the voice is soft, sincere, and refreshing. His language borders on a passion that seems to rouse the senses like skydiving, or waiting for first rain. I recommend this book and all his books to the poetry reader.

perhaps this is the most romantic and most beautiful book of love poems ever written. every word, every stanza is so easily read, so quickly understood, like an arrow to the heard. give this gift to your lover and they will never forget it.

A previous reviewer asked what Thoreau might think of how society has developed commercially since he wrote this book. I have to also wonder what he would think of the ridiculous (in my opinion) and jingoistic cover of this current edition? The person who chose the cover design should have read the book. The cover is offensive, given the ideas the book contains. Penguin should be ashamed.

This is a classic novel. It's value as literature speaks for itself.
I received the product in the condition advertised, in two days.
I am completely satisfied with the purchase and service.

Thoreau is more than simply a writer who produced a great American classic. He exemplified the idea which perhaps as much as any other has come to be at the heart of the American creed. "If a man does not keep pace to his companion, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away."

Throreau when he went into the woods of Walden Pond on July 4, 1845 , a journey in solitude which would last just two years and two months, was the archetypal American individualist. He was the man 'doing his own thing' living in accordance with what only he could know was right for himself. This idea of 'radical individualism' has become part of the American common faith. Its abuses are legion and may be disastrous, but it also has brought about not simply 'better mousetraps' but a whole vast world of innovations and innovators, the like of which Mankind has never known before.

Thoreau as he writes in his introduction went to the woods to explore not simply the natural world, the outdoors he so much loved. He went to the woods to truly go more deeply into and know himself. As he says in his introduction:

" I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well. Unfortunately, I am confined to this theme by the narrowness of my experience. Moreover, I, on my side, require of every writer, first or last, a simple and sincere account of his own life, and not merely what he has heard of other men's lives; some such account as he would send to his kindred from a distant land; for if he has lived sincerely, it must have been in a distant land to me."

Thoreau in that enigmatic, epigrammatic aphoristic style, he shared with his great mentor and fellow pioneering poet- philosopher, Emerson connects the world within with the world without , connects the Concord woods with the Cosmos . He creates a work in 'Walden' of singular beauty and of its own special economy and principles in thought.

Thoreau was too an abolitionist, an opponent of the Mexican war, a civil disobedient who refused to pay the poll tax-, a pioneer
whose followers would include Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.

But in his close looking at the world of nature and the world of himself he was first a great explorer of life and reality going out alone in his own way- however geographically close he may have been to home.

His words and his wisdom waken us even today to the hope of new and better worlds i.e. he also embodied the spirit of a great American optimism.

The great individual teaches us even in dark hours to find new worlds in ourselves outside our own darknesses. " There are new worlds yet to be born" he writes, " The sun is but a morning star"

Thoreau lived for two years and two months at Walden Pond. He said the mass of men live lives of quiet desperation. Henry Thoreau asked hard questions.

He related that when the Masschusetts Bay Colony was founded, earthen houses were built. They were convenient and suitable and they had the advantage of putting everyone in a position of equality and not making the poorer inhabitants feel discouraged. It distressed Thoreau that a good deal of the money spent for shelter and dress was for show, uneconomical.

He farmed organically because he was only a squatter. He found that by working for about six weeks he could meet all of the annual expenses of living. He claimed that memorable events transpired in the morning.

Thoreau went to the woods because he wished to live deliberately. The sounds of the railroad penetrated the woods. Visitors were frequent during three seasons. In the wintertime basically he had only himself for company and some of the animals.

In any season, the woods were surprisingly dark at night. Because he had no helpers or animals to assist him in cultivating the fields he felt that he ws more intimate with the beans in his beanfield. Songs have suggested that husbandry is a sacred art.

The scenery of Walden was on a humble scale. The first ice was especially interesting. He reported seeing fox, jays, chickadees, and red squirrels in the the winter.

In CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE he asserts that in a government that imprisons unjustly, the place of a just man is in prison. Thoreau underwent an overnight jail stay when he failed to pay a poll tax.

Isn't it a little bit incongruous to desire to detach yourself from society, seeking self-reliance, and then write a book about it? Just an observation...

While Thoreau is a curious individual - sort of a poor-man's G.K. Chesterton - he always seems to come up short. The Virtue of Civil Disobedience reads more like self-satire than a serious attempt at political philosophy. And while Walden is rich and fulfilling, it is ultimately just a vehicle for Thoreau to make baseless claims predicated upon his treasury of tidbits and odd knowledge.

Had Thoreau been blessed with living in the modern world, he could have just written "Living by a Pond on Your Own For Dummies" and saved himself (and us) a lot of trouble.

Instead of "Civil Disobedience," I recommend anything by Lysander Spooner (particularly "No Treason")

Instead of "Walden" I recommend "Two Years Before the Mast." It's both more relevant than Walden, and a heck of a lot Closer To Nature.

We first saw the hard-back version of this book in the museum on the island of Kauai. We thought it was a wonderful hardback book, but the museum tols us that it could cost $150.00 and was no longer available in any form. Luckily we found it on Amazon in soft cover (which is more than adequate) and for much less money. Truely a beautiful and informative book!

Now don't get me wrong. This is a wonderful book with beautiful photographs of Native Plants and Animals of Hawaii. The only thing wrong with the Softcover version is that the cover creases so easily. So if you want this book for your own personal library the Hardcover version is preferred. But if it is used as it is meant to be, as a coffee table book, than this is the book to have.

This book contains some of the most spectacular photographs you've seen. Close-ups even a pro would seldom come close to. It's unlikely you'll see many of these in your travels, but it feels like your walking through a Hawaiian tropical jungle as you page through the book. Many of the pages would look great framed for your walls. This is the perfect coffee table book, all of my friends have picked it up and marveled over the interesting plants and flowers, even the non-gardeners.

WOWS on every page. I gave this book to my Mother and Aunt for X-Mass. I wanted one for myself but ran out of cash (dag nab it) This is one of the most AMAZING nature books ever. If you need some brownie points give this as a gift, it will keep you out of the Dog House for YEARS.

The pictures of rare Hawaiian plants and animals in "Remains of a Rainbow" are pretty.
Pretty uninformative. And the text is largely nonsense.
The tipoff is "rich volcanic soil." When you see that in a book about Hawaiian natural history, you know right away that the author made no effort to learn his subject.
Just a few paragraphs away, we run into a rhapsody about the ancient Hawaiians' respect for the "unity and balance of the natural world." Large, slow, tasty birds excepted, of course.
The text by photographers David Liitschwager and Susan Middleton (assisted by Maui poet W.S. Merwin in an ill-informed introduction) is the verbal equivalent of kudzu -- an exotic, boring growth that smothers the interesting natural stuff underneath. Green goo.
It is understandable why the sponsors of "Remains" -- Environmental Defense and the National Geographic Society -- pander this way. It is not so easy to sell Hawaii's endangered plants and animals on their merits. After all, you and I are not likely ever to encounter most of them.
Which raises a question: If none of us is going to meet them except in the pages of a book, why bother to preserve them in nature? A small herb that was never known to exist until three or four years ago, and which was down to maybe five or 10 individuals then, is not going to alter the islands' ecosystem if it disappears.
One answer to that question is the last word in this book, taken from the writings of the late Maui biologist Wayne Gagne: "We are in pursuit of environmental quality, an ethical stance where our native biota is concerned, and for accepting each natural ecosystem on the planet for what it is . . . each a unique result of multifaceted ecological processes, past, present and continuing."
Fine words, but Liittschwager, Middleton and their sponsors obviously do not believe they can sell them. So instead of marketing Hawaii for what it is -- a unique place -- they peddle the ecological situation here, which is grim enough in fact, as part of a crisis "of declining biodiversity worldwide."
This is the "sixth great extinction" argument, one of those resilient popular ideas for which there is little evidence. People holding such views can find themselves in paradoxical situations.
Middleton, who blows the tin horn of mass extinctions louder than Liittschwager, writes about how after 15 years of working with endangered species, none she had encountered had yet gone extinct. Until Clermontia peleana.
But it turns out that while Clermontia peleana, a Big Island plant, probably is extinct in the wild, it is not yet quite extinct from the Earth.
Middleton does not seem to find any contradiction in simultaneous belief that the world is in the midst of the biggest extinction crisis in 65 million years and the fact that even a specialist in endangered species has yet to encounter one that passed on.
Considering that outsiders Liittschwager and Middleton had the cooperation of dozens of Hawaii's best biologists, they could easily have done better.
For one thing -- and this is another tipoff that the writers have not done their homework -- if they had listened to local experts, they would not have made such a big deal of Hawaii's biological diversity. To call islands with no amphibians, no reptiles, no pines and no ants diverse is perverse.
Instead of revealing and reveling in Hawaii's strange status -- its untypical ecological situation makes it the greatest natural laboratory of evolution -- Liitschwager and Middleton went for the picturesque and shallow.
Their pictures are gorgeous but don't tell much. They mostly were shot against solid backgrounds and display only a part of the organism. There is little hint of how each species functions within its community.
The misleading text of Liittschwager and Middleton is somewhat corrected by thumbnail descriptions of the 142 species illustrated, which were written by local authorities and are reliable.
"Remains of a Rainbow" represents the work of years, with the combined support for publishing from Environmental Defense, the National Tropical Botanical Garden and The Nature Conservancy of Hawaii; along with the on-the-ground help of NTBG, Maui Land & Pineapple Co. and other public-spirited groups.
In an afterword, David Wilcove, senior ecologist of Environmental Defense, writes that the survival of species in desperate straits will rely on "above all, public education."
"Remains of a Rainbow" is so far from contributing to public education that readers will end up knowing less about Hawaii after reading the book than they did before.

The world of Arthurian Knights is long lost to us. They are lost to us as commonly read literature, and more importantly, lost to us as inspirational reads. While I was a child in the recent, but last generation, Arthurian legends still had gravitas. Whether in the form of the Once and Future King, or the more arcane Parsifal, these stories were read or read to me as moral allegories. Perhaps in this politically correct universe, they seem an anachronism.

First of all, these stories are simply fun to read. They can be read as adventure stories.

Second of all, Western morals have not changed very much since 800 AD, The same romantic intrigues and aspirations to higher standards pervade us as much now as then,

Third, the themes described in these books manifest themselves in most modern fiction.

This current edition of Sir Gawain and The Green Knight is superbly translated. It IS a fun read. The author has a feel for modern English. You do not need to have a degree in Medieval Lit to follow the story (although some background in such would not hurt anyone).

And, finally, this is a great mystery/thriller. There are twists and turns that would make Josephine Tey proud.

Merwin has risen to the challenge, and, unlike Gawain, he has prevailed triumphantly on the first stroke.

A new, exciting translation of the Arthurian legend, SIR GAWAIN & THE GREEN KNIGHT reads excitingly crisp and vibrant. A story with equal parts chivalry, temptation, redemption, and romance, Merwin's GAWAIN deserves to be read by a far wider audience or, even better, deserves a touring one-man roadshow presented theatrically. Easily explored in a single sitting, this clever tome should be required reading for any serious explorer of mythology, real or even the realms of pure fantasy.

Highest recommendation!

As a translator myself (currently working on a translation of Le Conte du Graal from the old French), I am in awe of Merwin's fluid rendering of this middle English tale. He uses a true vernacular style and vocabulary, giving non of the false archaism with which translations of works of this period are generally imbued. It's clear that he is a poet first, and a translator second.

But he also avoids the tack chosen by Seamus Heaney in his Beowulf; Heaney delighted in using obscure words from time to time, which does not fit with the context of such works. These tales were declaimed, read out loud, and to groups of people who were certainly not learned. What may seem obscure in the original - or what may have an obscure equivalent today - shouldn't sound as such in a translation. These tales need to be rendered in contemporary language, as they were heard in the contemporary languages of their originators.

On the down side, Merwin seems to fall into the trap of false cognates - words that, while spelled the same, have different meanings today. A few examples:

On page 27, Gawain says "And if my request is improper, I ask this great court not to blame me." The middle English word, blame, is closer to today's "censure", "criticize", or even "find fault with". Given the vernacular treatment of this translation, the reader is more likely to seize the first meanings that come to mind when reading. Blame does, indeed, hold the meaning that is used in the original, but it is far from the most common usage of the word.

Again on page 27, king Arthur say to Gawain, "Take care, cousin." The original word, cosyn, means kinsman, and was often used to denote a niece or nephew (and, indeed, Gawain, on the previous page, points out that Arthur is his uncle). So the use of cousin here is incorrect, since the relationship between the two men is not that of cousin, but clearly of uncle and nephew.

He also succumbs to the tyranny of the original word order, and the desire to leave no word untranslated. On page 27, he translates, "The blood gushed from the body," which has a "the" too many. English doesn't need an article before a non-count noun like "blood", though this article exists in the original text.

All in all, in spite of the minor translator's nits, this is a brilliant work. It reads smoothly and fluidly, and renders the energy and wonder of this tale. If only more medieval works were translated this well, readers would discover how much amazing literature there is from this period.

I'm giving it 5 stars in spite of my reservations; Merwin deserves it for achieving such clarity.

Since I suspect they will have similar audiences, I feel I should state right off the bat that W. S. Merwin's translation of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" is not quite at the level of Seamus Heaney's "Beowulf". Heaney created an absolute masterpiece; the type of translation that comes along only once every few generations, and which completely redefines the view of the subject matter. The difference between the two translations lies in Heaney's ability to capture the meter and rhyme of "Beowulf" without being slavish to the original structure. Merwin has followed a similar approach in his translation, and while the language is beautiful, I didn't sense the same ancient vibrancy I got from Heaney's work.

That said, this book is more than worthy of the five-star rating that I gave it. Merwin's use of language is absolutely superb, and the resulting translation is a remarkable tapestry of images. In particular, he deftly captures the underlying tension and eroticism that forms such a key element of the story. Gawain's struggle to remain true to his code is rendered perfectly, and sets a mood of self-doubt that perfectly offsets his outward frivolity.

Since I have already mentioned "Beowulf" I might add for those unfamiliar with "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" that it is much more subtle than the former. While "Beowulf" is undeniably open to interpretation (indeed there is a wealth of fascinating scholarship surrounding it), its basic elements are much more straightforward. At its heart, as Tolkien espoused so brilliantly, "Beowulf" is a story about monsters, and what they mean in our world. On the other hand, "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" is more interested in exploring the ideals of chivalry and courtly love. While there is a fair bit of gore, it strikes me as being more of the hook to keep the reader engaged, rather than the core element of the story. Finally, in it's conclusion, "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" is far more vague than Beowulf.

Merwin has produced as a translation of the highest quality. While perhaps less "poetic" than some of its predecessors, it is written in a language that captures the full beauty and vibrancy of this remarkable poem. While a mere 84 pages in length (not including the opposing pages in Old English) this is a tale rich in metaphor that is a delight to read, and that will leave you pondering its meaning.

i rate this book higher based on its foreword which, as a lecture, would provide a semester's worth of knowledge and recommended reading. a must for fans of arthurian legend (or fans of tolkien, who was a "great scholar of the Arthurian cycle"), and for those interested in welsh history and literature, poetry, troubador lore, linguistics, or the middle ages.

the translation itself i'm not qualified to judge; the _new york review of books_ "hails [Merwin] as one of the finest of our poets [and] a skilled and sensitive translator." J.D. McClatchy cover-blurbs the translation as being written with "clarity, ingenuity, and force."

as for the plot, it's great stuff: courtly knight of the round table honorably and courageously accepts what appears to be a pact of certain death, honorably averts the importunate seductions of his host's wife, agonizingly tells a white fib because doing so is the only thing that may save his life, and . . . i leave the rest for the reader to discover.

Since Sabines has worked on a simple poetry, and since his acceptance has been quite enthusiastic, he has done a lot of easy, quite boring poetry for the people. I would only recommend the first books, "Tarumba", "Adán y Eva", "Horal", and "La señal".

Nowadays, you cannot pull apart Jaime Sabines from Latin American Poetry. He did what hadn't been in years. Young readers telling his poems. And as the film "Il Postino" quotes, "Poetry belongs to which needs it, not to it's creator". You can find in this poems all you always wanted to express but you were affraid to do so. He is EXQUISITE but a "day after day poet". Read one poem every night as the dessert of your days. I am proud of such a talent. The translations in this book keep the sensivity that Jabines gave us. He is a master of life. He is now, breaking language and culture, a basic poet.

Jaime Sabines is the mexican author that write about his earth like this was the heart! His poetry is very popular! and his words are very, very simples...! it is his sensitive!!!

No one can express about life, love, death and pain as Sabines did. The simplicity of his words enclose the beauty of "everyday life". He wrote for him, and for common people, not for poets, big writers or critics. I just can tell one of the most intense experiences of my whole life, was a reading of his poems in the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City. More than 3,000 people cried, laughed, cheered, and loved at the same time there. And the whole show was an old man, reading his poems in a wheelchair, behind a desk. Nothing more.

I read this short comic masterpiece as part of a survey course in Spanish and Latin American literature along with more monumental and recognized works of the genre (Cervantes' Don Quijote, Unamuno's Fog, and Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, to name a few.)

To my surprise, this little tome was the liveliest, most engaging, and by far, the most digestible of the lot (although the other three are indispensable reading and highly recommended as well).

Lazarillo de Tormes ranks as one of the true cornerstones of world literature yet (INHO) it is still riproaringly funny and insightful without being heavy-handed or tedious. Even though I read Lazarillo in Spanish and cannot commment on this translation, I imagine the story would translate without much ado into English. As a first-year Spanish student, I devoured it in a single afternoon.

In many ways, it seems to me to be the precursor to Hucklebery Finn. I came away from reading this short tome with the same sense of empathy for the character of Lazarillo as I had had for Huck Finn. Like HF, the tale of Lazarillo de Tormes is episodic in nature with a series of adventures featuring quirky antagonists who are each (the reader later realizes) satiric portraits of the various social classes of the day (the priest, the gentleman, the beggar thief, etc.) Both books inspired laughter, pathos, sympathy, empathy -- and ultimately, an overarching sense of the flawed yet ultimately endearing human qualities that imbue us all-- and transcend the centuries. Even though Lazarillo de Tormes predates Twain's masterpiece by three full centuries, I found it equally accessible, being a delightful and extremely quick read. In short, it is one of the earliest examples of the proto-novel, and to my mind-- still one of the best.

Highly recommended for all readers of all ages.

This brief book is something of an historical curiosity by virtue of being (supposedly) "the first picaresque novel ever written." But from the standpoint of contemporary literary interest or reward, it is not particularly noteworthy. Because it satirized the nobility and the Roman Catholic Church -- two powerful institutions of the day (it was published in 1554) -- its author chose to remain anonymous and to this day there is no consensus as to his identity. The chapter on the seller of indulgences, who in league with a constable operates an elaborate charade to con the initially skeptical masses into purchasing indulgences by the fistful, is rather scathing and moderately entertaining. But among modern novels there are countless more cutting and uproarious works that I, with the sensibilities of a literate middle-aged American, would rather read. So, my recommendation is to give this a pass unless you are interested in the history of the novel or the social milieu of Sixteenth-Century Spain and its Inquisition.

One of the finest renditions into the English language of the Spanish novel "The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes", the fountainhead of the Picaresque in modern European narration.

I will confess that I haven't had a chance to read Merwin's entire translation of Dante's _Purgatorio_, though I have read about a third to this point. I will say, though, that I have read his Forward, and I found it to be one of the more moving testaments to the emotional, spiritual, and intellectual impact that the _Commedia_ has had on readers, poets and non-poets alike, through the ages. There isn't much new information for the Dante scholar--Merwin acknowledges that his notes are largely based on Singleton's--but this is a translation written out of love, not necessarily scholarship. This is Merwin's editon for the lover of both poets and poetry

One of the greatest literary tragedies is that so many readers believe that the Divine Comedy, or that even Dante himself, is no more than the Inferno. Such ignorance leads to a vast reading public who have never experienced the most immediately human section of the Comedy: the Purgatorio. Unlike Inferno, which is full of characters whom we either revile or pity, Purgatorio introduces us to spirits who, like most of us, try to do the right thing, but aren't always successful. If we look down upon the shades in Hell, we identify with the shades in Purgatory, and it is in this understanding that the Purgatorio gains its beauty. An absolute must read for anyone with any interest in literature, history, theology, spirituality, philosophy, psychiatry, or beauty.

As for Merwin's translation, he has managed to take a giant step in solving the problem that I mentioned above. His translation does justice to the original not only in its accuracy, but in its poetry, which is so important to Dante's works. I have read two other translations of Purgatorio (Mandelbaum and Ciardi), and this is, by far, the most readable and the most engaging of the three. Merwin captures the hopeful but unfilled tone of the poem with considerable grace while still maintaining the structural and thematic tension that are crucial to an understanding of Dante's works. As for the scholarly aspects of the work, scholastics, clearly, were not Merwin's intent. His explanatory notes are minimal (which is preferable to Mandelbaum's copious, and sometimes condescending glosses) and the foreword is more an exploration of the art of translation than of Dante's work. Not that this is a bad thing. Understanding Merwin's reservations concerning translation, and the difficulties of performing it, makes his version of Purgatorio all the more human and touching. But, any reader seeking critical commentary should look elsewhere (and by elsewhere I mean a supplemental source as passing over this translation just because it lacks scholarly material would be criminal). Whether for readers experiencing Purgatorio for the first time, or for Dante aficionados, I can't recomend this volume highly enough. First, Pinsky's Inferno, then Merwin's Purgatorio, now, if only someone would do Paradiso similar justice!

I think the reason the Inferno is the most popular canzone of Dante's Divine Comedy is just that it's where to start with Dante's amazing incredible eternal epic. Also the Inferno has more shoot-em-up sort of action than the other 2, Purgatorio & Paradiso. Purgatory is of such poetic brilliance; it's full of poetic philosophy from Dante's critical genius, & beautiful scenes, interesting spirits -- a feeling wholly different from the grimness of the Inferno. & W. S. Merwin too is brilliant & masterful enough for a repartee with the medieval guru. Merwin is a poet & translator whose verbal & syntactical decisions you can trust. He renders Purgatorio with great exciting faithfulness to Dante's original language, with mellifluous music, with merit worthy of the high praise this has gotten from Robert Pinsky, Harold Bloom, & others. The Comedy is notoriously difficult to translate, & this is one of the best translations of Purgatorio into English ever, I'm sure.

Lovely and brilliant! Even if Merwin doesn't "know" any asian languages, he sure pulls one over gorgeously with these works- with great help from the various asian translator/collaborators. Read carefully of the Muso Soseki poems, read them into your own being, and you can't help to radiate joy as the poems wash through you!

Not only is W.S. Merwin one of our finest living poets, he also has provided us with the daunting task of translating the poems of Asian writers, making them not only available but emotionally and artistically relevant. No easy job this, but Merwin has taken on the challenge of gathering disparate works from Sanskrit, Persian, Urdu, Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese into an immensely readable volume.

Merwin curated this collection well. Not only do we have the opportunity to re-read works by 13th century Rumi, but we also gain access to poets such as Li Po and Tu Fu. The translations reflect the countries of origin and in Merwin's hands the result is a collection of poems that maintain the spare dignity of the originals. Example, a Rumi poem follows:

The moon which the sky never saw
even in dreams
has risen again

bringing a fire
that no water can drown

So here where the body
has its house
and see here my soul

the cup of love has made the one
drunk
and the other a ruin

For a gifted poet to devote a large portion of his career sharing the works of Asian masters is a gift to us, as readers. This is a splendid collection. As Merwin states: 'The practice of translation is plainly impossible and nevertheless indispensable.' Grady Harp, November 06

If you ever wondered if medieval poetry and the lives of the people who wrote it was in some way intimidating or academic, `The Mays of Ventadorn` provides a truely unique way of experiencing it. W.S. Merwin, in his charateristic style, brings to life Ventadorn (places and personalities) the center of the troubadour universe by weaving his own personal relationship with the region, the era and its poets. This book is a wonderful journey through Merwin's experience and how he has found value and meaning in the troubadours -- It will leave you wanting more poetry and a plane ticket to Southwest France.

This is a delightful look at a wonderful place and a marvellous cast of characters by one of our most talented living poets. I don't usually find myself yearning to move to France, but after reading The MAYS I couldn't help myself! Merwin's language is uniformally beautiful & he makes both his people and his places come alive. I also enjoyed both the fragments of songs that Merwin translates for us and his discussion of the difficulties of translation -both across language and across time. My one critique (and the loss of a star) is that I wanted more. Each time I felt that the "story" was REALLY going to start we would shift gears & go somewhere else or talk about someone else, and after a while I gave up hoping for any conclusion or resolution. This may be the product of some arbirary editorial length (I note that the book is part of a travel series) but in any case it is a pity, as I could easily have read twice as much on half as many troubadors!