Looking for Poetry: Poems by Carlos Drummond de Andrade and Rafael Alberti and Songs from the Quechua

by Mark Strand (Translator)

A uniquely appealing collection that reflects the variety and richness of South American poetry.

Carlos Drummond de Andrade, a native-born Brazilian, is universally recognized as the finest and most accessible modern Portugese-language poet and, along with Pablo Neruda, a poet of the common man, writing of home, family, friends, and love.

Rafael Alberti--an elegist primarily--came to Argentina (where he wrote many of his poems) in exile from Spain during the Spanish Civil War. The effects of that experience wind through the poet's work in poems about the survival of the spirit in the face of personal and political tragedy.

Looking for Poetry also contains the simple and haunting poems of the Quechua Indians.

Genres: Poetry

192 pages, Paperback

First published February 26, 2002

About the author

Mark Strand was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet, essayist, and translator. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1990. He was a professor of English at Columbia University and also taught at numerous other colleges and universities.

Strand also wrote children's books and art criticism, helped edit several poetry anthologies and translated Spanish poet Rafael Alberti.

He is survived by a son, a daughter and a sister.

Reviews

[june · Rating 3 out of 5]

*read drummond's section only

2.5(?)

"I am the girl you loved
who died of sickness,
who died in a car crash,
who killed herself on the beach,
whose hair stayed
long in your memory.
I was never of this world:
when kissed, my mouth
spoke of other planets
where lovers burn
in a chaste fire
and without irony
turn into stars.

Unlike the others, I died
without having time to be yours."

[Corey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great stuff and one can see in these translations some of Strand's influences.

[Seamus Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

4 1/2 stars for the Andrade section.

[hh · Rating 3 out of 5]

loved the de andrade & the quechua. not as crazy about the alberti, but some nice stuff there too. an interesting thing about seeing a single poet translate multiple poets is that i got to see more of what mark strand brings to the table because i could see the through line of voice across different poets. does that mean that there's a lot of mark strand in these translations and not a lot of the original? i'm uncertain. this is not a facing-page volume. but it is a lovely set of poems that are moving in their simplicity and clarity of language.

[Francis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mark Strand's are the best translations of de Andrade I've seen; wasn't familiar with the other content but it is amazing!