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Best Spanish Poetry

The Essential Neruda: Selected Poems (Bilingual Edition) (English and Spanish Edition)
An impressive group of translators that includes Alastair Reid, Stephen Mitchell, Robert Hass, Stephen Kessler and Jack Hirschman, have come together to revisit or completely retranslate the poems; and a handful of previously untranslated works are included as well. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1971, his breadth of vision and wide range of themes are extraordinary, and his work continues to inspire new generations of readers and writers.
Reviews
"EXCELLENT poems."
"Adds to my romantic side; spouse appreciates."
"Me encanta!"
"HE writes about my lover."
"was i supposed to receive 4 copies?"
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One Hundred Love Sonnets: Cien sonetos de amor (English and Spanish Edition)
Set against the backdrop of his beloved Isla Negra, these joyfully sensual poems draw on the wind and tides, the white sand with its scattering of delicate wildflowers, and the hot sun and salty scent of the sea to celebrate their love. With its lush textures and effervescent lyricism, this book is like a smoky champagne which two lovers, mesmerized by each other’s presence, are sipping." "Erotic feeling and human affection convey a warmth and immediacy that is direct, delicate, subtle, and strong by turns."
Reviews
"The side by side translation can be rough at times because it is just so hard to translate poetry."
"I could not live without these poems."
"This is a nice edition."
"how nice to have some of the most romantic poems available side to side in both English and Spanish."
"Good quality, good value."
"For school, what's there to say?"
"Great read."
"Love in beautiful in any language though."
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Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair (Spanish and English Edition)
The most popular work by Chile's Nobel Prize-winning poet, and the subject of Pablo Larraín's acclaimed feature film Neruda starring Gael García Bernal When it appeared in 1924, this work launched into the international spotlight a young and unknown poet whose writings would ignite a generation. From 1927 to 1943, Neruda lived abroad, serving as a diplomat in Rangoon, Colombo, Batavia, Singapore, Buenos Aires, Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, and Mexico City. Merwin has published many highly regarded books of poems, for which he has received a number of distinguished awards—the Pulitzer Prize, Bollingen Award, Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets and the Governor's Award for Literature of the state of Hawaii among them.
Reviews
"Moreover, an easy read for those readers traumatized by verse in past and reticent to delve into its mysteries."
"If you want to be moved by poetry, get this book."
"Product was true to the description."
"Great purchase!"
"This is the writer who motivates us, on every level."
"Beautiful expression of intense desire, need, intimacy, and naked unrelenting passion."
"Product came damaged."
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Best Spanish Poetry

The Aeneid (Vintage Classics)
Virgil's great epic transforms the Homeric tradition into a triumphal statement of the Roman civilizing mission. Long the bane of second-year Latin students thrust into a rhetoric of sweeping, seemingly endless sentences full of difficult verb forms and obscure words, Virgil's Aeneid finds a helpful translator in Robert Fitzgerald, who turns the lines into beautiful, accessible American English. “Fitzgerald’s is so decisively the best modern Aeneid that it is unthinkable anyone will want to use any other version for a long time to come.” – New York Review of Books “A rendering that is both marvelously readable and scrupulously faithful . Fitzgerald has managed, by a sensitive use of faintly archaic vocabulary and a keen ear for sound and rhythm, to suggest the solemnity and the movement of Virgil’s poetry as no previous translator has done . Fitzgerald hides his consummate artistry, effaces his own prodigious labor, until the text speaks to us directly, without foreignness of time or place.” – The Boston Review.
Reviews
"This is a superb translation by John Dryden (17th century English poet)."
"There are many good translations of Virgil's Aeneid, but Dryden's is special."
"This makes The Aeneid actually readable."
"A good translation."
"I had to read it for my humanities class at UCSD, and it was one of the better books to read."
"This is a good translation of Vergil's masterpiece: The Aeneid."
"It was sometimes hard to keep track of the same people or nations having 3 or 4 separate names, but this offered a quick reference and short description that I found invaluable."
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Best French Poetry

Dance Me to the End of Love (Art & Poetry)
10 years ago, Welcome Books published the star of its Art & Poetry Series, Dance Me to the End of Love , a deliriously romantic song by Leonard Cohen that was brilliantly visualized through the sensual paintings of Henri Matisse. He has published two novels, The Favourite Gam e and Beautiful Losers , and ten books of poetry, most recently Stranger Music: Selected Poems and Songs and Book of Longing .
Reviews
"Beautiful book that artfully depicts one of my favorite songs from Leonard Cohen."
"LOVELY BOOK MELDING OF TWO FAVORITES."
"Lovely pairing of song lyrics with paintings."
"I was hoping there will be many more songs!"
"great together as book!"
"My daughters favorite story time book."
"Beautiful book for the whole family ."
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Best Italian Poetry

The Divine Comedy (The Inferno, The Purgatorio, and The Paradiso)
The authoritative translations of The Inferno , The Purgatorio , and The Paradiso —together in one volume. “I think [Ciardi’s] version of Dante will be in many respects the best we have seen.”—John Crowe Ransom.
Reviews
"I have the Kindle and paperback versions and both are excellent."
"I'm happy to report that Clive James has made even this abstract exploration of light and doctrine (and, I might add, occasionally smug self-righteousness on Dante's part) a fascinating journey. James has chosen an unusual verse form - quatrains, with an abab rhyme scheme - to translate this, but it works well: it moves quickly and smoothly, each line pulling you forward to the next. For example, the "one who made the great refusal" is identified in the verse as Pope Celestine: if you have to pick one among many, that IS the closest to a scholarly consensus; but purists would argue against closing off other possibilities."
"One of the best; I always enjoyed reading it; over and over."
"I wish the verses were numbered as well, but with the Kindle you can search by word and the results give you ample clues as to which canto the word on which the search was performed is located."
"His style is both poetic and dramatic, and while he strives to make the text accessible to a modern reader, he does not make the mistake of cheapening the genius of Dante by making a "modern" translation. And, of course, all the various characters and personalities that Dante encounters in his journey toward and into Heaven are explained (if the reader does not have an extremely solid grasp of Medieval European politics (and how many of us do?"
"But while the architecture of the work was amazing, line by line it was often a hard slog."
"I bought these 3 volumes for a course, which was then postponed indefinitely."
"I buy these books for the cover--the goal is to have all of them--exquisite cloth bound covers by Coralie Bickford Smith--she was featured years ago in Fine Books and her books are worth collecting."
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Best German Poetry

The Poetic Edda: Stories of the Norse Gods and Heroes (Hackett Classics)
"The poems of the Poetic Edda have waited a long time for a Modern English translation that would do them justice. Jackson Crawford earned his Ph.D. in Scandinavian Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an M.A.
Reviews
"There's a difference... actually, there's an abyss between a translation and a true, high quality social localization."
"One of the best translations I've seen."
"This is a beautiful translation and interpretation of the Poetic Edda."
"Great translation, I'd recommend to anyone interested in the subject matter."
"Clear, easily readable texts; good background and notes; works well as an introductory text for Norse mythology to undergraduates."
"Excellent work by an excellent Professor."
"Great book."
"Can't wait to dig in."
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Best Norse & Icelandic Sagas

The Poetic Edda: Stories of the Norse Gods and Heroes (Hackett Classics)
"The poems of the Poetic Edda have waited a long time for a Modern English translation that would do them justice. Jackson Crawford earned his Ph.D. in Scandinavian Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an M.A.
Reviews
"There's a difference... actually, there's an abyss between a translation and a true, high quality social localization."
"One of the best translations I've seen."
"This is a beautiful translation and interpretation of the Poetic Edda."
"Great translation, I'd recommend to anyone interested in the subject matter."
"Clear, easily readable texts; good background and notes; works well as an introductory text for Norse mythology to undergraduates."
"Excellent work by an excellent Professor."
"Great book."
"Can't wait to dig in."
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