A Tale of Two Gardens

by Octavio Paz, Eliot Weinberger

A Tale of Two Gardens collects the poetry from over 40 years of Nobel Prize winner Octavio Paz's many and various commitments to India―as Mexican ambassador, student of Indian philosophy, and above all, as poet. Despite having written many acclaimed non-fiction books on the region, he has always considered those writings to be footnotes to the poems. From the long work "Mutra," written in 1952 and accompanied here by a new commentary by the author, to the celebrated poems of East Slope, and his recent adaptations from the classical Sanskrit, Paz scripts his India with a mixture of deft sensualism and hands-on politics.

Genres: Poetry, Fiction, India

112 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1997

About the author

Octavio Paz Lozano was a Mexican writer, poet, and diplomat, and the winner of the 1982 Neustadt International Prize for Literature and the 1990 Nobel Prize for Literature ("for impassioned writing with wide horizons, characterized by sensuous intelligence and humanistic integrity.")

Reviews

[Edita · Rating 5 out of 5]

Trees heavy with birds hold
the afternoon up with their hands.
*
Armed with the arms of summer
you come into my room come into my mind
and untie the river of language
look at yourself in these hurried words

Bit by bit the day burns out
over the erasing landscape
your shadow is a land of birds
the sun scatters with a wave

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's been years since I've read Paz, and his poetry is just as strong as I remember.

In fact I'm going to go out on a limb and say that no modern poet with the possible exception of Allen Ginsburg has such a rich and powerful sense of description as Paz. The opening poem 'Mutra' especially, is just a gorgeous overflow of reveries, symbols and perceptual shifts. It alone makes this book worth buying.

Paz's repertoire of images is unbeatable precisely because of how elemental it is. The sun, the moon, water, stones, darkness, sunlight...he constantly returns to these primordial sensations and always manages to make them feel vital and lived in, no matter how often he uses them. I highly recommend this, or really any of his collections of poetry.

[Steven Godin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hear the throbbing of space
it is the steps of a season in heat
across the embers of the year

Murmur of wings and rattles
the far-off drumbeats of the storm
the crackling and panting of the earth
under its cape of roots and bugs

Thirst wakes and builds
great cages of glass
where your nakedness is water in chains
water that sings and breaks loose from its chains

Armed with the arms of summer
you come into my room come into my mind
and untie the river of language
look at yourself in these hurried words

Bit by bit the day burns out
over the erasing landscape
your shadow is a land of birds
the sun scatters with a wave

[Jamie Grefe · Rating 5 out of 5]

It has been ten years since I've read Paz and ten years is too long. This collection sings with the kind of existential, spiritual, emotional beauty that I remember he conjured all those years ago. There is even a poem in here dedicated to the great E.M. Cioran, which, in my eyes, puts this collection way past five stars. This is beauty.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fluid, lyrical, evocative.
These poems offer a celebration of culture, landscape, experience, but refrain from exoticism.
A refreshing read.

[māris šteinbergs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paz zina bezgalības mēru. Precīzs, intriģējošs, mīlošs un ārkārtīgi trausls. Izlasīts Kioto kalnu upītes ielejā.

[Jaydin Faz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I gave this book a 2 out of 5 star rating because I didn't really care for this book that much. The theme in the book is biblical and religious, it is poem writing. Two examples are when they talk about being God and how he blessed them, and another example is when they talk about being baptized. The author and writers are very strong believers of God and I think their saying that he is amazing. One thing that would symbolize this book is a picture of the bible or God. I think to religious people this bok would be a big deal to them but to the other people it isn't a big thing in the world.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

WITH EYES CLOSED

With eyes closed
you light up within
you are blind stone

Night after night I carve you
with eyes closed
you are frank stone

We have become enormous
just knowing each other
with eyes closed

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a decent poetry read.
The set up of the stanzas can be read in multiple ways which give it multi-facetted tempo and meaning.
Nice and short, perfect read for public transit commuting.

[Joe Drogos · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't really have an explanation, I just could not get into this.

[Monty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think Octavio Paz was some kind of ambassador to India from Mexico and these poems seem a very strong link to that country.
Mystical, brooding and shiftingly intense meditations.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finished this collection several days ago but decided to read it again. The longer poems are stream of consciousness and hard to follow. The shorter poems are more poetic.

[Sean A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

a short, deft collection of verse.