By Word of Mouth Poems from the Spanish, 1916-1959

William Carlos Williams (1883'¬ ;1963) produced a startling number of translations of both Spanish and Latin American poetry starting during WWI and continuing through the late fifties. Williams grew up in a Spanish-speaking home and sometimes described himself as half-Spanish. His mother was Puerto Rican and his father spoke Spanish fluently. '¬SSpanish is not, in the sense to which I refer, a literary language,'¬ Williams wrote in his Autobiography. '¬SIt has a place of its own, an independent place very sympathetic to the New World.'¬ Williams approached translation as a way not only to present the work of unknown Spanish poets, but also to extend the range and capacity of American poetry, to use language '¬Swith unlimited freshness.'¬ Included in this bilingual edition are beautifully rendered translations of poets well-known '¬ ; Neruda, Paz, and Parra '¬ ; and lesser-known: Rafael AreÌvalo MartiÌnez (from Guatemala), Rafael BeltraÌn LogronÌ’o (from Spain), and Eunice Odio (from Costa Rica).