The Winged Energy of Delight: Selected Translations

ISBN: 0060575867

Author: Bly, Robert

Condition: New

"This dazzling, intensely personal compendium is a passionate feast." -Jane HirshfieldRobert Bly had always been amazingly prescient in his choice of poets to translate. The poetry he chose supplied qualities that were lacking from the literary culture of this country. For the first time Robert Blys brilliant translations, from several languages and spanning twenty-two poets, have been brought together in one book.At a time when editors and readers knew only Eliot and Pound, Robert Bly introduced the earthy wildness of Pablo Neruda and Cesar Vallejo and the sober grief of Trakl, as well as the elegance of Jiménez and Transtrmer. He also published high-spirited versions of Kabir and Rumi, and Mirabai, which had considerable influence on the wide culture of the 1970s and 1980s. Blys clear translations of Rilke attracted many new readers to the poet, and his versions of Machado have become models of silence and depth. He continues to bring fresh and amazing poets into English, most recently Rolf Jacobsen, Miguel Hernandez, Francis Ponge, and the ninteenth-century Indian poet Ghalib. As Kenneth Rexroth has said, Robert Bly is one of the leaders of a poetic revival which has returned American literature to the world community.