Hojas de hierba

by Walt Whitman, Alberto Manzano (translator)

Hojas de hierba (Leaves of Grass, en inglés) (1855) es un libro de poemas del poeta estadounidense Walt Whitman (1819–1892). ... Este libro se caracteriza por su alegría y alabanza de los sentidos en un momento en el que las manifestaciones en primera persona y la expresión del uno mismo se consideraba inmoral.

192 pages, Paperback

Published June 21, 2024

About the author

Walter Whitman Jr. was an American poet, essayist, and journalist. He is considered one of the most influential poets in American literature. Whitman incorporated both transcendentalism and realism in his writings and is often called the father of free verse. His work was controversial in his time, particularly his 1855 poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described by some as obscene for its overt sensuality.
Whitman was born in Huntington on Long Island, and lived in Brooklyn as a child and through much of his career. At the age of 11, he left formal schooling to go to work. He worked as a journalist, a teacher, and a government clerk. Whitman's major poetry collection, Leaves of Grass, first published in 1855, was financed with his own money and became well known. The work was an attempt to reach out to the common person with an American epic. Whitman continued expanding and revising Leaves of Grass until his death in 1892.
During the American Civil War, he went to Washington, D.C., and worked in hospitals caring for the wounded. His poetry often focused on both loss and healing. On the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, whom Whitman greatly admired, he authored two poems, "O Captain! My Captain!" and "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd", and gave a series of lectures on Lincoln. After suffering a stroke towards the end of his life, Whitman moved to Camden, New Jersey, where his health further declined. When he died at the age of 72, his funeral was a public event.
Whitman's influence on poetry remains strong. Art historian Mary Berenson wrote, "You cannot really understand America without Walt Whitman, without Leaves of Grass... He has expressed that civilization, 'up to date,' as he would say, and no student of the philosophy of history can do without him." Modernist poet Ezra Pound called Whitman "America's poet... He is America."

Reviews

[nina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Walt Whitman es mi nueva obsesión desbloqueada 🙂‍↔️

[Ryan Lerner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay… here’s the deal. So this was Leaves of Grass, Spanish version. Now imagine the language Whitman used in English, translated to Spanish. The English version alone can be tough to discern at times, let alone the Spanish version… With that being said, I picked up on a ton of great thinking and great themes throughout the story. But I’m leaving it at. There were a ton of things that I definitely missed because it is in the Spanish of the time it was written. I will give a full review once I read the English version of Leaves of Grass!!! However, I am quite proud of myself for being able to identify things with this upper level translation of Spanish literature!!!