Poet in New York (1988)
Poet in New York by Federico García Lorca. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1988. (Translation with Greg Simon)
“This new, superb translation, also a bilingual edition (with good notes, a helpful textual history, and a translation of Lorca’s 1932 lecture on the book, along with the letters that he wrote home to his family), makes it possible for English readers to grapple with an agonistic, inspired work of art. Together, Greg Simon and Steven F. White have managed to render into a flexible, idiomatic, American-tinged English the various moods of the original. They capture the conversational directness and urgent tempo of Lorca’s accusations…They manage to render faithfully his disembodied conceptual and philosophical unhappiness…And they find an equivalent rhythm for Lorca’s waltzing, sexy, high-strung, deathward-leaning proclamations of love…But, most of all, the translators capture the nervous, hallucinatory intensity of Lorca’s imagery and the exclamatory spirit of warning that everywhere animates his sequence.”
Edward Hirsch, The New Yorker
“Poet in New York is sensitively translated into living English…”
David H. Rosenthal, The New York Times Book Review
“It is a distinct pleasure to report that this strong new translation by Greg Simon and Steven F. White is both accurate and poetic…I cannot applaud this book too highly. The exacting translations, the excellent introductory and explanatory apparatus, the accompanying lecture and letters, and, of course, the poems themselves, make up a work that must be taken with the utmost seriousness. Poet in New York is one of the most compelling books of poetry in the 20th Century.”
Allen Josephs, The Miami Herald
“With grace and good sense Simon and White have respected Lorca’s language and let him speak for himself. Their work looks easy in the way that a well-performed ballet looks easy.”
Barbara Meacham Jarvis, Translation Review
“Simon and White’s new translation ably captures both the elegance and hardness of Lorca’s Spanish.”
Wilson Quarterly
“Simon and White’s translation, which is much more clear, concrete, and fluid than previous translations, is important because we can finally see the lineaments of Lorca’s struggle with his art.”
Gillian Conoley, Denver Quarterly
“This new version, more readable, accurate, and literal than prior translations…and enhanced by addenda such as the editor’s scholarly notes on the publishing history of the work, may establish the standard against which all future editions will be measured. An auspicious beginning to a planned three-volume series of Lorca’s poetical works. Essential.”
Lawrence Olszewski, Library Journal
“A startlingly fresh, bilingual version of Lorca’s poem by Portlander Greg Simon in collaboration with Steven F. White, who teaches at St. Lawrence University.”
Doug Marx, Willamette Week
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