Penguin International Poets: Selected Poems: A Bilingual Edition Edited by Charles Tomlinson

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Octavio Paz, as noted by Eliot Weinberger in his introduction to these Selected Poems, is one of the last modernists who "drew their own maps of the world." For Latin America's eminent poet, Mexico serves as the center of a global mandala, a cultural journey traced through his life and work. This journey spans from Spain during the Civil War, to San Francisco and New York in the early 1940s, to postwar Paris as a surrealist, and further to India and Japan in 1952. He also served as Mexico's ambassador to India from 1962 to 1968, and held various academic positions in the U.S. during the 1970s. The rich diversity of Paz's thought is showcased in this collection of sixty-seven selections, which includes Muriel Rukeyser's classic version of "Sun Stone" and new translations by Weinberger of “Blanco" and "Maithuna." Since Paz believed there could be no "definitive text," all poems have been revised to reflect his latest changes in the original Spanish. Alongside Rukeyser and Weinberger, translations are provided by G. Aroul, Elizabeth Bishop, Paul Blackburn, Lysander Kemp, Denise Levertov, Mark Strand, Charles Tomlinson, William Carlos Williams, and Monique Fong Wust.