The Vintage Book of Contemporary World Poetry

by J.D. McClatchy

This groundbreaking volume may well be the poetry anthology for the global village. As selected by J.D. McClatchy, this collection includes masterpieces from four continents and more than two dozen languages in translations by such distinguished poets as Elizabeth Bishop, W.S. Merwin, Ted Hughes, and Seamus Heaney. Among the countries and writers represented

Bangladesh--Taslima Nasrin
Chile--Pablo Neruda
China--Bei Dao, Shu Ting
El Salvador--Claribel Alegria
France--Yves Bonnefoy
Greece--Odysseus Elytis, Yannis Ritsos
India--A.K. Ramanujan
Israel--Yehuda Amichai
Japan--Shuntaro Tanikawa
Mexico--Octavio Paz
Nicaragua--Ernesto Cardenal
Nigeria--Wole Soyinka
Norway--Tomas Transtromer
Palestine--Mahmoud Darwish
Poland--Zbigniew Herbert, Czeslaw Milosz
Russia--Joseph Brodsky, Yevgeny Yevtushenko
Senegal--Leopold Sedar Senghor
South Africa--Breyten Breytenbach
St. Lucia, West Indies--Derek Walcott

Genres: Poetry, Anthologies, Nonfiction

688 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

McClatchy is an adjunct professor at Yale University and editor of the Yale Review. He also edits the "Voice of the Poet" series for Random House AudioBooks.

His book Hazmat (Alfred A. Knopf, 2002) was nominated for the 2003 Pulitzer Prize. He has written texts for musical settings, including eight opera libretti, for such composers as Elliot Goldenthal, Daron Hagen, Lowell Liebermann, Lorin Maazel, Tobias Picker, Ned Rorem, Bruce Saylor, and William Schuman. His honors include an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1991). He has also been one of the New York Public Literary Lions, and received the 2000 Connecticut Governor’s Arts Award.

In 1999, he was elected into the membership of The American Academy of Arts and Letters, and in January 2009 he was elected president. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation (1987), the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Academy of American Poets (1991). He served as Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 1996 until 2003. (Wikipedia)

Reviews

[T. · Rating 3 out of 5]

My only gripe is that there are no works from Filipinos. There are a lot of wonderful, fantastic poets born and raised here in the Philippines, whose works, either in the vernacular or in English, take my breath away. It's one of my dreams to someday see my fellow writers' names in 'world' poetry anthologies alongside those whom we read today.

[Dustyn Hessie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the best anthology I own and the translations are SUPERB! I fell in love with Dahlia Ravikovich as soon as I read her poems in this anthology, but as soon as I bought one of her few books available on amazon, I realized that I was mostly just in love with the translator ... same goes for others (Neruda, etc.)

If you're even remotely interested in poetry give this one a whirl!

[Evan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Always on the lookout for a good anthology of world poetry for teaching creative writing: all students have access to, generally, is American poetry, which is great and all, but it's worth seeing what kinds of things are possible outside of our tradition -- a little hybrid vigor.

So McClatchy's selection is interesting and broad (quibble: only 1 Palestinian poet, though? There are a few that are really noteworthy these days) and he provides five or six pages of poems for each poet, so you can get some little taste of her style. The three stars come from the fact that the translation is uneven. This is due, I think, to two issues:

McClatchy relies on a number of different translators, which makes for a variety of attitudes toward translation and a variety of styles, from the Nabokov literal-sense-and-style-be-damned to the Pound all-that-matters-is-that-the-result-is-a-great-poem. Fine, but with so many styles, you're never sure what you're getting, how closely the translation hews to the literal sense or captures the stylistic flavors of the original.

The second issue is quality: not every translator is all that great. Some are fantastic and well-known, others are fantastic (at least judging by the resulting poem) and unknown, and others produce mediocre poems -- rhythmically-stilted or -senseless or written in translatese. I'm not sure what McClatchy could do about this, since I don't know how many great translators of modern Greek or Turkish poetry there are, so I don't want to bitch about his hard labor or imagine that he hadn't thought through these issues, but if the translation is bad, it isn't much use for the teacher or pleasure for the student.

[Cami · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful collection of poetry from around the world. It is divided by region/country and then highlights the handful of poems from a few poets.
I like this because you get to read more than one thing from one person, giving better insight on how a poet from Poland or Senegal writes about. It also includes a great biography on each poet at the heading of their section.

[Ilze · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poetry in translation is something that has always fascinated me. I mean, does the translator need to be a poet in order to produce another poem? Does the newly translated "poem" need to have all the literary bits and pieces that made the original famous?
This book has introduced me to some amazing poets, e.g. the Czech Miroslav Holub and the Spanish Angel Gonzalez; some of the others I've read or heard about elsewhere, such as Wislawa Szymborska and Yehuda Amichai. Occasionally it felt as though the translator had simply dumped the words into English and left them there for the reader to disentangle. At other times, such as with Holub, the meaning of the poem hit home. One thing I can say is that the European poets had a far greater impact on me than the Asian and Middle Eastern ones, certainly by the time I'd reached the section called "The Caribbean", I was ready to put the book back on the shelf and have to admit that the last poem went unread!

[Shreya Sharma · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's the best poetry anthology I have read so far. It comprises masterpieces written by fantastic poets such as Pablo Neruda, Mahmoud Darwish, Nazim Hikmet amongst many across the world. I have read hundreds of poems throughout the past couple of years since I have bought this book and it always fills the void when I feel low or desolated.
On the top, I appreciate the fact that I can always pick this book with total freedom to read any page and any poem and I know it will fill my heart with complete awe. 🩷

[Alexandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

awesome collection (reading as I please).

[lily kachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

i know we live slightly longer than a horse but not nearly as long/as a crow (hikmet)

I LOVE THOSE TWO LINES SM!!

[behsforensics]

Cutting is for Songs from an Island
By Ingeborg Bachmann

[Y. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first anthology of poetry I ever read, so going through it again is both nostalgic and refreshing.

I'd echo some of the quibbles mentioned in past reviews; although I am not as well-versed with prominent translators, I can echo the sentiment that certain demographics were underrepresented, or represented by poets who wrote on stereotypical themes at times (female poets, for example). However, this remains one of my favorite anthologies of poetry to date -- I still go back fondly through these pages to remember my first encounter with Rozewicz and Hikmet -- and it is a good introduction for any reader wanting to get a taste of mostly good international poetry.

[Singalongalong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rereading this baby. Believe I donated my old copy to a school in shanstate almost a decade back. The same poems I remember reading the year before myanmar read differently now.. was in mental survival mode then, similar now, but regardless, have always appreciated windows into other worlds that are not so other at all but bring closer sense of home than america ever has.

[hh · Rating 4 out of 5]

a well put-together assortment of poetry from around the world in excellent translations. my only complaint is that i wish it were a bit less euro-centric, but the editors still did a pretty good job of balancing well- and lesser-known poets who are all writing extremely great poems.

[Matt Holloway · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, a Czech doctor named Miroslav Holub is a new hero of mine. Who knew the Eastern Bloc was so grim?! Distinguishing mark of this collection is the quality of the translations and translators -- Ted Hughes, Seamus Heaney, etc.

[Emily Gamez · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my textbook for the Creative Writing course I'm taking and it's so good! There is a variety of poems and I find myself reading the unassigned ones anyway. Probably the best textbook I've had yet.

[Sarah Salem · Rating 5 out of 5]

i stole this book from ms. edmonds during ap english...its awesome.

[Janelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great go-to book for those days when you just want to pick up some poetry. The collection is quite good overall. It's become one of my favorite anthologies.

[Namrirru · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think it's amusing how "World Poetry" encompasses the entire world except the US, Canada, and UK.

[Cami · Rating 5 out of 5]

I discovered my favorite poem in this book by Shu Ting called "Fairy Tales"

[kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I adore this collection.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really terrific browser.

[beau · Rating 3 out of 5]

philipe jaccottet, swoon.

[Mark Dickson · Rating 4 out of 5]

J D McClatchy has almost succeeded in The Vintage Book of replicating for the last fourth of the 20th century what Barstone did for the first half in Modern European poetry.

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

An essential piece for the poetry lover.

[Christy Seedorf · Rating 4 out of 5]

If your a fan of all cultures and poems then this is the book to read.

[Mejix · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very uneven, which is understandable because of the breadth. Not the best anthology I've ever read but it does have some great poems.

[Tasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely collection. This introduced me to many poets I had not read from all over the world. Now I can look for their full volumes in bookstores.

[Shelby Rollenhagen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although the anthology is great from a stylistic and technique perspective, a lot of the included works didn't suit my pallet. However, it is a good read for aspiring poets

[Joey Gamble · Rating 5 out of 5]

A solid collection of some of the world's most brilliant recent poets.

[Kate]

Christmas 2001

[Aadil · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best anthology of contemporary world poetry out there!