A Draft of Shadows and other poems

Paz, Octavio; Eliot Weinberger (ed.); Elizabeth Bishop & Mark Strand (transl.)

ISBN 10: 0811207382 / ISBN 13: 9780811207386

Published by New Direction, New York, 1979

About this Item

Fine in price-clipped else about fine dustjacket (mylar protected). Edited and translated from the Spanish by Eliot Weinberger. With translations by Elizabeth Bishop and Mark Strand. A fresh, attractive copy.

Seller Inventory # 010980

Bibliographic Details

• Title: A Draft of Shadows and other poems
• Publisher: New Direction, New York
• Publication Date: 1979
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0811207382
• ISBN 13: 9780811207386
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First American Edition
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine (pc)
• Seller catalogs:
  • Literature in Translation

About this title

Synopsis

A Draft of Shadows and Other Poems is the most recent collection of the work of Mexico's leading poet and essayist, Octavio Paz. The first section of poems, from Ladera este (East Slope, 1969), reflects some of Paz's experiences as his country's ambassador to India (1962-68). Following stays in England, France, and the United States, he returned to Mexico in 1971, reacting to the urban sprawl and violence of Mexico City with the four long poems of disaster and rage that, together with shorter poems more familiar in tone, make up Vuelta ("Return," 1976). A long meditation on the poet's childhood and adolescence, Pasado en claro ("A Draft of Shadows," 1975) forms the third section of this volume and represents a further departure from the self-contained surreal images many associate with Paz. This bilingual selection concludes with a sampling of his most recent lyrics, and the promise of further experimentation. Paz, winner in 1981 of both the Neustadt Prize and the Cervantes Award, stated in a recent interview: "When I am writing a poem, it is to make something, an object or organism that will be whole and living, something that will have a life independent of me," and throughout this book the poet's abiding concern for language as a living force is revealed. For Paz, poetry is a way of reinventing the self, and appropriately, the reflective. "A Draft of Shadows" concludes: "I am the shadow my words cast."

About the Author

Octavio Paz (1914-1998) was born in Mexico City. He wrote many volumes of poetry, as well as a prolific body of remarkable works of nonfiction on subjects as varied as poetics, literary and art criticism, politics, culture, and Mexican history. He was awarded the Jerusalem Prize in 1977, the Cervantes Prize in 1981, and the Neustadt Prize in 1982. He received the German Peace Prize for his political work, and finally, the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1990.