The Golden Age: Poems of the Spanish Renaissance » (Bargain)

Acclaimed for her best-selling translations of Cervantes, Gabriel García Márquez, and Mario Vargas Llosa, Edith Grossman received the 2006 PEN/Ralph Manheim Award for Translation. She lives in New York City.

Billy Collins was a Poet Laureate of the United States.

"Edith Grossman again demonstrates that she indeed is the Glenn Gould of translators."—Harold Bloom

Library Journal

Addressing what she calls "the stunning lack of familiarity in the English-speaking world" with the poetry of the Spanish Renaissance, Grossman, translator of Cervantes and Gabriel Garc a M rquez, offers a compact anthology of 40 shorter poems by eight 15th- and 16th-century poets. Combining artistic magnificence with the savagery of its religious persecution, the Spanish golden age produced poetry spanning a wide gamut of emotions and conceptualizations. Grossman's selections range from the filial piety of Jorge Manrique and the mysticism of San Juan de la Cruz to the humor of Lope de Vega. Also featured are sonnets by Mexican nun Sor Juana In s de la Cruz, who eventually was persuaded to repent of her erudition and dispose of her 4000-book library. Not included is Juan Boscan, who taught his friend Garcilaso (the better poet, who is included) the vogue of Italian versification and collected and preserved his friend's works after he was killed in battle. Unencumbered by archaisms, Grossman's English is modern but not jarringly so. She has assembled a superb introduction to the poetic riches of the period for all libraries. Jack Shreve, Allegany Coll. of Maryland, Cumberland Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.