Translating Neruda The Way to Macchu Picchu [Paperback]

What goes into the translating of a poem? Usually that process getsforgotten once the new poem stands intact in translation. Yet a versetranslation derives from historical, biographical, and philosophicalresearch, interpretive analysis of the original poem, and continuouslinguistic and prosodic choices that parallel those the poet made. Taking as a text Pablo Neruda's brilliant prophetic sequenceAlturas deMacchu Picchu(1945), the author here re-creates the entire process oftranslation, from his first encounter with the poem to the last shaping ofa phrase that may never come right in English. This many-faceted bookforms an essay on the theory and practice of literary translation, a studyof Neruda's career through 1945, and an interpretation of his major poem, all of which lead to a striking new poem in English,Heights of Macchu Picchu, printed along with the original Spanish. This genesis of a verse translation also includes little-known biographical data, hitherto untranslated poems and prose from the years 1920 to 1945, and new translations of key poems from Neruda'sResidence on EarthandSpain in My Heart.John Felstiner is Professor of English at Stanford University