La Odisea: The Odissey

by Derek Walcott

BOOKS IN SPANISH

Genres: Plays, Poetry, Drama, Mythology, Fiction, Fantasy, 20th Century

384 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1993

About the author

Derek Walcott was a Caribbean poet, playwright, writer and visual artist. Born in Castries, St. Lucia, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992 "for a poetic oeuvre of great luminosity, sustained by a historical vision, the outcome of a multicultural commitment."

His work, which developed independently of the schools of magic realism emerging in both South America and Europe at around the time of his birth, is intensely related to the symbolism of myth and its relationship to culture. He was best known for his epic poem Omeros, a reworking of Homeric story and tradition into a journey around the Caribbean and beyond to the American West and London.

Walcott founded the Trinidad Theatre Workshop in 1959, which has produced his plays (and others) since that time, and remained active with its Board of Directors until his death. He also founded Boston Playwrights' Theatre at Boston University in 1981. In 2004, Walcott was awarded the Anisfield-Wolf Lifetime Achievement Award, and had retired from teaching poetry and drama in the Creative Writing Department at Boston University by 2007. He continued to give readings and lectures throughout the world after retiring. He divided his time between his home in the Caribbean and New York City.

Reviews

[meeners · Rating 5 out of 5]

what can i say? every single line is a thing of utter beauty. every single line.

[Jenn Mattson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the twists on the traditional story of the Odyssey, but I especially liked that the bard, Billy Blue, spoke in an island dialect, as did the servants.

[Ahmed Yousri ataweyya · Rating 3 out of 5]

دعيه يرجع كي يرى كيف نفذ صبرك.
= لم يكن صبري عبودية،بل كان ثقة مطلقة.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Walcott reinvents the Odyssey by breathing Caribbean language into Homer's epic, all the while remaining true to the story itself (at least the high points, as the stage version is dramatically shorter). I love the double meaning implied in lines such as that of Captain Mentes when he says of Odysseus's tricks: "I too saw the wooden horse blocking the stars." There a great declamations like that of Menelaus ("What are men? Children who doubt.") and the Philosopher ("The future happens. No matter how much we scream."). Finally, there are Walcott's distilled metaphors, such as "She's a rare vase, out of a cat's reach, on its shelf."

Walcott has an extraordinary talent to distill and sublimate language while elevating the language of his country. This work is an excellent example.

[char · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good adaptation of The Odyssey! The Caribbean and post-colonial elements present in this re-telling are very interesting and add an entirely new perspective to this story, allowing for a greater look into classism present in the original epic. I also really appreciate Walcott's look at the women in this epic, as he managed to give them a bigger voice. The displays of PTSD in this play were also amazing as it is a subject that is not at all touched on in the original epic, but nonetheless should be extremely relevant given the plot.

[Niamh Kelly · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have to read this for my Origins & Transformations module at Uni and I really did not like it.
Half the time characters were talking it was like the conversation didn't flow because one character would say one thing then the other would say something that didn't sound like it was of any relevance to what the former said.
Another problem I had was I struggled to imagine it being staged and seeing as this is a play... that's not very good.

[Betty · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story parallels Homer's "Odyssey", the twenty-year, sea-going adventure of the Trojan hero and his reclaiming the kingship of Ithaca from the hundred-plus suitors intent upon it and upon wooing Penelope his wife. In this stage version of the epic, Walcott introduces Caribbean dialogue and plays with double word meanings. Well worth the reading by a Nobel Laureate.

[Adam Bennett · Rating 3 out of 5]

lucid and elegant prose; not much of a departure from 'Omeros' though. Staging-wise, too much happens and, I imagine, would make little sense to an audience member. To be read and (probably) not to be watched.

[Keith Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

So I might have been slowed by the verse drama, but it did take a while to move into this as a reading experience. I kept trying to visualize it on stage, and couldn't. Felt as if it would have been too slow. I also felt he might have simply been commissioned to do this by the Royal Shakespeare Company after the brilliant success of "Omeros." Here, he does mix standard English and island speech, but the latter is only in the speech of the servants; that felt odd to me. Troubling. First act moments of simply setting the various scenes from Homer into his language felt programatic.

BUT I did get more involved in Act 2. The homecoming scenes were really effective, I thought. Again, I couldn't figure out how they would be dramatized -- the murder of the suitors, for instance -- but they still read effectively. I could get absorbed in this.

Also, I didn't feel as if there were standout quotable lines of verse, and I liked that. I had just read Yeats' plays a couple of months ago, and I felt stopped, "impressed," by the verse. By the end of this play, I was simply reading past the lines, and that felt right.

[Héctor Méndez Gómez · Rating 5 out of 5]

La famosa obra épica de Homero, La Odisea. Derek Walcott, quien fue nobel de literatura en 1992 "por una obra poética de gran luminosidad, sustentada por una visión histórica, [siendo] el resultado de un compromiso multicultural", nos recrea las famosas aventuras de Odiseo pero a manera de obra de teatro, incluyendo algunos pequeños elementos de la cultura caribeña. Un estilo muy formidable e igenioso.

Este es mi primer libro de Walcott, me hubiese gustado inicarme en la obra de Walcott con un libro, digamos que, más propio de él. A pesar de eso me gustó mucho ver de esta forma La Odisea, epopeya con la que todo lector y lectora se ha cruzado en su debido momento. La famoso escena de Odiseo y el Cíclope es la imagen con que uno siempre se queda y de las más recordadas a lo largo de los siglos.

[Reagan Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Walcott’s work is a beautifully crafted homage to the lives of those often forgotten in literary tradition. The blend of one of the most prominent pieces of European art (The Odyssey) and the culture of the people oppressed by the harbingers of The Odyssey (colonized peoples of the Caribbean) created a story that encompasses all that the humanities should be. It’s a celebration of people, of their lives, and of survival. It is one of the first works I read for one of my majors (comparative literature) and cemented my love of the subject. I believe that people should diversify their reading, and anyone can agree with such a sentiment after this; it encapsulates how intersectionality and storytelling are harmonious. To those who love classics and studying post-colonial societies: you’ll love this!

[Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Walcott incorporates Caribbean culture into his richly imagined version of the Odyssey, reminding us that Greece too is a nation of many islands, a culture with its own voodoo, a land where weather sometimes dictates story. The Cyclops, Circe, and some sirens all make appearances yet the character who emerged most fantastically for me was Penelope, the resourceful wife who's been weaving a shroud to her father-in-law while awaiting the return of her husband who magically resurfaces just in time... albeit with PTSD.

[Keeley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ten years is not the normal span for the events of a drama. Walcott incorporates most of the signal episodes of the Odyssey, changing the order of some and transmuting others into stories, dreams or visions. The result is something that I would be very interested to see staged (WAY more than I want to see Christopher Nolan throw Hollywood $ at this story...) but it's hard to imagine how it would turn out.

[María Paula · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es un retelling de la Odisea. Que sea expuesta teatralmente, lo hace mucho más interesante. Además de la habilidad del autor para colocar en diálogos una obra canónica tan importante, la hace bastante atractiva. Billy Blue es uno de los personajes que más aportó en el desarrollo de esta pieza teatral. Gracias a él me decidí por colocar cuatro estrellas, y no sólo tres.

[دايس محمد · Rating 5 out of 5]

العودة إلى المترجم أولاً: ممدوح عدوان.

ثم الأوديسة في محاولة لإعادة كتابة السيرة/ الرحلة من جديد، ولكن بأن يحمل أوليسيوس غربته في داخله، فكلما اقترب من إيثاكا أحس ببقاء روحه في مكانٍ آخر، كانت بينيلوب هي الحلم الذي يراوده كل ليلة، لكن بعد سنوات الحرب بعد الآلاف الذين دفنهم في أرض طروادة تبخّر منه شيءٌ وأقام في منفىً يحاول طوال درب العودة إعادته.

[Danny Hunt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mislabeled. Walcott isn’t translating, this is his original play. It might be called “The Odyssey” but it isn’t a translation of Homer, it’s a theatrical reimagining.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful puzzle of language around a familiar story. I’m into it.

[Lumalu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Muy apegado al original, con diálogos más humanos.

[Cecilia]

rad

[mei · Rating 5 out of 5]

post-colonial theming throughout with slaves and billy blue speaking in island dialects, very beautiful prose.

walcott never fails to deliver.

[Robert Cavanagh]

shout out to carol raney my 9th grade English teacher for dropping this banger on me

[Maclean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mesmerizing. This Nobel Prize winner from St. Lucia reminds me of TS Eliot.

[Stuart · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this adaptation of the ODYSSEY. It is almost complete, it is stunningly beautiful, and having done it myself, it is also very stage-able, with lots of room for actors and directors and designers to move and play.

[elsbeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Derek Walcott is amazing--but we all knew that already.

[Pinky · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful version of the classic in the Caribbean.

[Michael Pennington · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic. I loved the interweaving of the st Lucian vernacular with Homer's mythology.

[Mauqui · Rating 2 out of 5]

2'5/5