Wow! eBook
Selected Poetry of Francisco de Quevedo: A Bilingual Edition
Author(s): Francisco de Quevedo (Author), Christopher Johnson (Translator)
- Publisher: University of Chicago Press
- Publication Date: 1 Aug. 2009
- Edition: Illustrated
- Language: English
- Print length: 240 pages
- ISBN-10: B004D4YVG8
- ISBN-13: 9780226698915
Book Description
Francisco de Quevedo (1580–1645), one of the greatest poets of the Spanish Golden Age, was the master of the baroque style known as “conceptismo,” a complex form of expression fueled by elaborate conceits and constant wordplay as well as ethical and philosophical concerns. Although scattered translations of his works have appeared in English, there is currently no comprehensive collection available that samples each of the genres in which Quevedo excelled—metaphysical and moral poetry, grave elegies and moving epitaphs, amorous sonnets and melancholic psalms, playful romances and profane burlesques.
In this book, Christopher Johnson gathers together a generous selection of forty-six poems—in bilingual Spanish-English format on facing pages—that highlights the range of Quevedo’s technical expertise and themes. Johnson’s ingenious solutions to rendering the difficult seventeenth-century Spanish into poetic English will be invaluable to students and scholars of European history, literature, and translation, as well as poetry lovers wishing to reacquaint themselves with an old master.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“This is a thoughtful introduction to a major Baroque poet little known to English readers, one whom Borges called the greatest artificer in all of Hispanic letters. Christopher Johnson’s attentive selection and translation hit the high and low notes in Quevedo’s register, from scurrilous to near sublime, from ‘love that reaches beyond death’ to stoical sonnets about time, which ‘neither stumbles nor returns.’”
-- Christopher Maurer, Boston University Published On: 2009-04-13
"Johnson has captured Quevedo's essence--his contradictory and conflictive nature, his emphasis on the incongruities of existence. The reader who expects a collection containing mostly sonnets . . . will be surprised to find a good number of silvas, romances, and letrillas (many of them vicious and scatological) on the thems of love, the brevity of life, morality, mythology, and satire,.'" ― Choice
“In translations which capture the startling metaphors, contrived symmetries and disarming directness of the original texts, Christopher Johnson offers fresh access in English to a selection of Quevedo’s finest poems. His insight-filled introduction and notes guide the modern reader skillfully through the complexity and diversity of Spanish Baroque poetry. This volume promises a new life in translation to some of the most emotionally and intellectually intense poems ever written in Spanish.”
-- Mary Malcolm Gaylord, Harvard University Published On: 2009-05-04
About the Author
Christopher Johnson is associate professor of comparative literature at Harvard University.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
SELECTED POETRY OF Francisco de Quevedo
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS
Copyright © 2009 The University of Chicago
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-226-69889-2
Contents
List of Illustrations.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................xiAcknowledgments.............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................xiiiIntroduction................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................11 Represéntase la brevedad de lo que se vive y cuán nada parece lo que se vivió / Describing the brevity of life and how past life seems to be nothing / SONNET..............................................................................................................................302 Signifícase la propria brevedad de la vida, sin pensar, y con padecer, salteada de la muerte / Expressing the essential brevity of life, unexpectedly, miserably assaulted by death / SONNET.........................................................................................................323 El escarmiento / The warning / SILVA......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................344 "Un nuevo corazón, un hombre nuevo" / "A new heart, Lord, a new man" / SONNET........................................................................................................................................................................................................................465 "Trabajos dulces, dulces penas mías" / "My sweet labors, my sweet pains" PSALM.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................486 Enseña cómo todas las cosas avisan de la muerte / He teaches how everything warns of death / SONNET.............................................................................................................................................................................................507 Conoce las fuerzas del tiempo y el ser ejecutivo cobrador de la muerte / He acquaints himself with the forces of time and death's debt collector SONNET...................................................................................................................................................528 Desde La Torre / From La Torre / SONNET...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................569 Don Francisco de Quevedo / Don Francisco de Quevedo SONNET................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................5810 A una mina / To a mine / SILVA...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................6011 El reloj de arena / The hourglass / SILVA................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................6612 Juicio moral de los cometas / Moral verdict on comets QUINTILLAS.........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................7013 Túmulo de la mariposa / The butterfl y's tomb / SEXTILLA............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................7414 A una fuente / To a spring / SILVA.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................7815 Al pincel / To the paintbrush / SILVA....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................8016 A Roma sepultada en sus ruinas / To Rome entombed in its ruins SONNET....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................9417 Memoria inmortal de Don Pedro Girón, Duque de Osuna, muerto en la prisión / Immortal memory of Don Pedro Girón, Duke of Osuna, dead in prison / SONNET....................................................................................................................................9618 Inscripción en el túmulo de Don Pedro Girón, Duque de Osuna, Virrey y Capitán General de las dos Sicilias / Inscription on the tomb of Don Pedro Girón, Duke of Osuna, Viceroy and Captain General of the Two Sicilies / SONNET.................................................9819 Túmulo a Colón habla un pedazo de la nave en que descubrió el nuevo mundo / At Christopher Columbus's tomb, a piece of the ship that discovered the New World speaks / SONNET.............................................................................................................10020 Compara con el Etna las propriedades de su amor / He compares aspects of his love with Etna / SONNET.....................................................................................................................................................................................................10421 Exageraciones de su fuego, de su llanto, de sus suspiros y de sus penas / Exaggerations of his fi re, grief, sighs, and pains / SONNET...................................................................................................................................................................10622 Describe a Leandro fluctuante en el mar / He describes Leander floating in the sea / SONNET..............................................................................................................................................................................................................10823 Encareciendo las adversidades de los...
