Octavio Paz has since passed through this world leaving behind a beautiful web of words with the tapestry of things seen and unseen. Paz does an ambidextrous job of mixing in elements of surrealism with the bone of natural objects and that which is very real. His, and the translator Eliot Weinberger ... along with the help of other poet translators to include Bishop, Levertov, Tomlinson--all of their words come alive with beautiful language. The translation seems true to the intent.

What is essential about this book is that each poem comes with the bilingual translation in English and accompanied by the original works in Spanish. Two years of high school Spanish, as well as two years in college, has rendered me with a woefully inadequate ineptitude of all words and understanding of that language. But I don't think that the translation can ever capture the sound, the alliteration, the true tongue/la lingua and fluid language that Paz meant in his original Spanish. Even if I don't understand a lick of what's on the left side of the page in Spanish at least it can be read for it's beautiful sound. Listen to this, "Through the conduits of bone I night I water I forest that moves forward I tongue I body I sun-bone Through the conduits of night" and then on the even-numbered page, "Por el arcaduz de hueso yo noche yo agua yo bosque que avanza yo lengua yo cuerpo yo hueso de sol Por el arcaduz de noche."

What are you doing still sitting here reading my crappy writing when you could be reading Ocatavio Paz? Go get the book...you'll see.

Example 1: "Un cuerpo, un cuerpo solo, sólo un cuerpo,/un cuerpo como día derramado/y noche devorada". Example 2: "Lates entre la sombra/blanca y desnuda: río." Octavio Paz is one of the first voices of the xxth century mexican poetry. He is the most important blend between clasicism and the modern trends in poetical expresion. He lived in France and thus, he experienced surrealism and mingled with the likes of Breton, Éluard, et al. In México he estimulated the literary critic and reviews to new standars of excelence. Read O. Paz.

Paz' poetry is sublime, and elegant. The words and ideas simply slip off the page. Its like taking a bath in chocolate.

Paz consistently suprises the reader with new ideas, form, language. Paz creates an atmosphere that is soothing, and enchanting. I would highly recommend this work.

Octavio Paz, A Draft of Shadows (New Directions, 1979)

I am kicking myself for having had this book in my collection for long enough that I don't remember buying it and not getting around to it until now. Paz is the most exciting poet I've run across since discovering the work of Ira Sadoff five years ago. His work, more than capably translated here by Eliot Weinberger (with a few translations from others thrown in for good measure), is a perfect blend of the art and craft of poetry. It is also the finest overtly political work I have read since Aime Cesaire last put pen to paper. Paz understands that if the poetry is good enough, the message of the poetry will come out on its own, something nine hundred ninety-nine out of every thousand political poets never grasp. Those who would dispute it need only read the title poem here and hold it up against the best works by inferior political poets. The difference is stunning, and obvious.

When Paz won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1990, the committee stated that his writing was characterized by 'sensuous intelligence and humanistic integrity.' Indeed. This is poetry the way it's meant to be. **** 1/2

Excelent translation. Like "Eagle or Sun", "A Draft or Shadows" is the best Paz's poetry. Without doubt, some of the best poems I have ever read. East and West, Water and Stone, White and Black... encounter each other... on the other side.

Brilliantly lucid and maddeningly obscure by turns, this small book consists of an "enthusiastic poem" written in 1947, an essay written in 1960 which explores Sade's ideas, and another less positive essay of 1986 which recapitulates what Paz has felt and thought of Sade's life and work. Paz starts out, reasonably enough (though how few exhibit such sense!), from the position that "the main interest of Sade's work is of a philosophical order", and his book contains a wealth of profound insights into Sade's thought which resonate in the mind long after one has put it down. A book not to be missed, and one that shows clearly that only a philosophic mind of some depth can truly comprehend Sade.

I've read de Sade, and studied him in class at Harvard. Only NOW--after having read Paz--can I understand what was underneath all the "frigging" and "embuggering."

External structures that are often inflexible and ultimately produce ludicrous, harmful people & behaviors. This is what Sade was getting at.

Paz shows us that Sade can't be dismissed as an inept writer of pornography. There's oh! so much more going on.

I was introduced to this book by a friend in high school. He had stolen the only copy out of my schools library.. since then it is has been an impossible task to find the book. I don't know yet if this is the right one! Villaurrutia is an amazingly dark poet who writes exactly what the mind is thinking! Great translation, but nothing close to what the spanish is really saying! -Jamie

An excellent collection of poems for the Modern Goth or anyone who isn't afraid of admitting that they've ever felt absolutely alone. Too bad it's so hard to find and the only published poems in translation from this poet. Dark in an age where it wasn't popular to be dark, accidentally rich in romance and rhythm, it brings literature back to a period when political statements took a back seat to the root of poetry -- writing about what you're feeling. Again, I wish there were more of Villaurrutia's work available.

Esta obra es muy interesante sobre todo la primera parte, la cual contiene artículos interesantes sobre literatura, el idioma español, la lectura y la contemplación... Es ciertamente un libro que debe guardarse para futuras referencias y debe ocupar un lugar especial en la biblioteca de todos aquellos que deseen aprender sobre literatura y lenguaje escrito por un profesional. Le segunda parte es mas especifica y me gusto mucho menos, aunque mi opinión no debe quitar méritos, pues es excelente. Lo que pasa es que esta mas centrada a autores específicos y lo mismo pasa con la tercera parte. Podría ser de interés saltarse los autores sobre los cuales uno no quiere leer y dirigirse a los análisis que le son de interés.

Muy recomendado.

Luis Mendez

Esta obra es muy interesante sobre todo la primera parte, la cual contiene artículos interesantes sobre literatura, el idioma español, la lectura y la contemplación... Es ciertamente un libro que debe guardarse para futuras referencias y debe ocupar un lugar especial en la biblioteca de todos aquellos que deseen aprender sobre literatura y lenguaje escrito por un profesional. Le segunda parte es mas especifica y me gusto mucho menos, aunque mi opinión no debe quitar méritos, pues es excelente. Lo que pasa es que esta mas centrada a autores específicos y lo mismo pasa con la tercera parte. Podría ser de interés saltarse los autores sobre los cuales uno no quiere leer y dirigirse a los análisis que le son de interés.

Muy recomendado.

Luis Mendez

This bilingual text enhances the experience of reading Paz's poetry. His poetic form can be as spare and suggestive as tanka/haiku or dense with visual imagery as in the poem, A Fable of Joan Miro. The meditative tone of many selections suggests that beyond the accomplishments of art, literature and music, the essential composition is of oneself: "to learn to see so that things will see us and come and go through our seeing." Highly recommended.

Octavio Paz wrote some of the most remarkable poetry and prose of the 20th century. The collection of poems entitled "A Tree Within" represents one of his most memorable achievements. A remarkable diverse blend of short lyrics and longer, Whitmanesque creations, "A Tree Within" is definitely a collection that bears careful reading and re-reading.

The book is richly studded with multicultural references and allusions--to Epictetus, Buddha, Gilgamesh, Jack the Ripper, the Aztecs, Don Quixote, and many, many, more. But Paz is not merely trying to dazzle us with his knowledge. He is also introspective and revealing. He struggles with deep questions about language, love, and other concerns.

Paz seems to be searching both for an ideal poetic language, and for a form of connectedness that transcends language--a paradoxical quest, yet pure Paz. When he writes "Man's word / is the daughter of death" (in the poem "To Talk"), it strikes me as both a tragically naked confession of inadequacy and a moment of serene liberation. At other times, Paz seems, like Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson, to be groping towards the creation of a sort of "secular scripture" for the (post)modern age.

In the poem "I Speak of the City," Paz writes, "I speak of our public history, and of our secret history, yours and mine." The histories recorded by this visionary genius are certainly some of the most important literary creations of the 20th century.

"The Double Flame: Love and Eroticism," by Octavio Paz, is an impressive prose exploration of the title subject. The book has been translated from Spanish into English by Helen Lane.

In this extended multi-part essay, Paz considers the presence of love, eroticism, and related phenomena in literary works that span many cultures and centuries: the biblical Song of Songs, the writings of the Marquis de Sade, Joyce's "Ulysses," Murasaki Shikubu's "Tale of Genji," Mohammed Ibn Dawud's "Book of the Flower," the poems of Sappho, and much more. Paz also considers a wide range of other social and scientific phenomena that are relevant to his project: the "Big Bang" theory, the AIDS crisis, artificial intelligence, the Buddhist concept of Nirvana, the "Luciferian" movement in art, and more.

Occasionally, Paz seems to be a little too full of himself; he sometimes issues pronouncements on highly debatable points as if they were undebatable facts. But his overall passion and intelligence make these occasional lapses forgivable.

"The Double Flame" is also rich in what I call "Pazisms": characteristically witty, wise, and highly quotable statements. Here's one of my favorite Pazisms: "Love has been and is still the great act of subversion in the West" (from the 5th chapter, "A Solar System"). If you are interested in love and eroticism, in the art of nonfiction prose, or in Latin American literature, check out this book.

The big bang of my holiday reading began with ever-enigmatic Octavio Paz's another master piece, "The Double Flame". A three hundred sixty degree recount of history and genre of Love & Eroticism. During his diplomatic job at India, being inspired by the Buddhist erotic statues of Karli (alas the other Mecca of history & culture that I never had a chance to visit), Octavio wanted to write a 100 page polemic on this subject. He waited almost 15 years. Finally in 1993, wrote this 276 page authoritative, eclectic, mesmerizing and fascinating book. I found Paz always dwells on this interesting issue. In his poems about India such as Mathura and Vridabaan, Octavio brings the erotic images of ancient India as living objects. But through this book only I discovered the depth and breath of his reading on this occult issue. Beginning with Plato's Symposium, Paz gives us a short history of love and eroticism in literature throughout the ages. From Greeko-Alexandria to Roman-Europe to Tantrik Bengal, Octavio swims us through every current and under current of human sexuality. To him, eroticism to sexuality is same as poetry to language. The courtly love in Heian Japan to twelfth century amorous lit of France, Paz is everywhere. It helped me understand Baudelaire better. It explains the erotic nuances of Madame Bovary and Ulysses. The Double Flame is translated to English by Helen Lane and published by Harcourt Brace & Company.

Reviewer: luismendez@codetel.net.do from DOMINICAN REPUBLIC love is a wonderful mystery and this book takes a good love at all sides, from chinese and budhism, to western society and courtly love. this collection of essays is spellbounding and magnificent. it is reallly the work of a master at his best. this is the first time i read a book by him , but it certainly won't be the last. the scope of this book is enormous and it makes us feel that we are not alone in feeling a sensation we cannot fully account for. i recommend it for everybody, specially for the people who want to learn something in the art of living. --

LUIS MENDEZ crazzyteacher@hotmail.com

I first read this book in the early 70's and enjoyed it immensely. Being od Mexican descent it gave me insight into who I am and why. I have read this book again recently, upon Paz's death, and found it still as enlightening. The style of writng is beautiful, poetic , and full of symbolism and metaphors. While working in education I highly recommended it to my collegues to better understand the Mexican psyche. Anyone who works in the public sector or deals with Mexicans on either side of the border should read this book. It will help you understand the mind of the Mexican and how it works. One of my all time favorite books that should be enjoyed by all people interested in human behavior.

No other book has been able to accurately describe the Mexican psyche as Paz has done in this book. His eloquent prose style captivates the Mexican spirit in all its grace and in all its sadness. He brings all of Mexico's conflicts and taboos together and strips off all its masks to reveal the Mexican. I found his style to be poetic, eloquent, and majestic. Never had I read a book as powerfull and truthfull as Paz's. It is no wonder Paz was honored to receive the Nobel prize for this work. Any individual willing to read this book will finish it understanding Mexican culture and history better.

Some say that when this masterpiece appeared in Mexico it was perceived as a mexican offending his own country, many censured Paz ideas:the birth of criticism and freedom of speech was taking place in Mexico.Since those years (the 50's), this radiography hasn't change a lot and this book has become a truly must read book. Its like a pre guide tour of one of the most mysterious countries in the world.Paz wrote about mexicans masks and inner faces. His sensual poetic prose dances with intelligence and beauty.

I checked the book out of the local library a couple of weeks ago and have not stopped reading it since. The library volume is due back, so I just purchased it. My only complaint is that the last poem is Gary Synder's from 1978. I would like to see Mr Weinberger reissue the volume with latter translations such as Arthur Sze or Sam Hamill. And if any one is looking for a most needed project, a translation of all of Wang Wei's Wang River poems.

Poetry, said Robert Frost, is what gets lost in translation.
Poetry, says Eliot Weinberger in the introduction to this small volume, is that which is worth translating.
Both, of course, are right. That is what I like about poetry. It tolerates different points of view, a multitude of interpretations. A poem, or its translation, is never 'right', it is always the expression of an individual reader's experience at a certain point in his or her life: "As no individual reader remains the same, each reading becomes a different - not just another - reading. The same poem cannot be read twice."

"Nineteen Ways of Looking at Wang Wei: How a Chinese Poem is Translated" contains a simple four-line poem, over 1200 years old, written by Wang Wei (c. 700-761 AD), a man of Buddhist belief, known as a painter and calligrapher in his time. The book gives the original text in Chinese characters, a transliteration in the pinyin system, a character-by-character translation, 13 translations in English (written between 1919 and 1978), 2 translations in French, and one particularly beautiful translation in Spanish by Octavio Paz (1914-1998), the Mexican poet who received the 1990 Nobel Prize for literature. Paz has also added a six-page essay on his translation of the poem.

Wang Wei's poems are fascinating in their apparent simplicity, their precision of observation, and their philosophical depth. The poem in question here is no exception. I would translate it as:

Empty mountains
I see no one

but I hear echoes
of someone's words

evening sunlight
shines into the deep forest

and is reflected
on the green mosses above

Compared to the translations of Burton Watson (1971), Octavio Paz (1974), and Gary Snyder (1978), this version has a number of flaws. My most flagrant sin is the use of a poetic first person, the "I", while the original poem merely implies an observer. The translation reflects what I found most intriguing in the original text. First of all, the movement of light and sound, in particular the reflection of light that mirrors the echo of sound earlier in the poem. Secondly, the conspicuous last word of the poem: "shang"; in Chinese it is a simple three-stroke character that today means 'above' (it is the same "shang" as in Shanghai ' the city's name means literally 'above the sea').

This is a very simple poem. The simplicity is deceptive, though. What looks very natural, still wants to make a point. The point is that looking is just one thing, but being open to echoes and reflections is what really yields new and unexpected experiences. Wang Wei applies the "mirror" metaphor in a new way in his poem. This metaphor was very popular in Daoist and Buddhist literature, and says roughly that the mind of a wise person should be like a mirror, simply reflective and untainted by emotion. Wang Wei seems to have this metaphor in mind when he mentions echoes and reflections in his poem. A Buddhist or a Daoist, for that matter, would also recognize the principle of "Wu Wei" (non-action) here: nothing can be forced or kept, everything simply "falls" to you and will be lost again. In this sense, a person cannot "see" (as in the activity of seeing); a person can only be "struck" by the visible (as in being illuminated - the "satori" of Zen Buddhism).

"Nineteen Ways of Looking at Wang Wei" is a light, unscholarly book - and I mean this as a compliment. It is a pure pleasure to read the different translations together with Weinberger's lucid comments. Weinberger has a wonderful sense of humor to accompany his analytical mind; and he is allergic to pomposity. He enjoys mocking the pompous. This is what he has to say about one translator's misguided efforts to rhyme Wang Wei's poem: "line 2 ... adds 'cross' for the rhyme scheme he [the translator] has imposed on himself. (Not much rhymes with 'moss'; it's something of an albatross. But he might have attempted an Elizabethan pastoral 'echoing voices toss' or perhaps a half-Augustan, half-Dada 'echoing voices sauce')."

In the translation of Chinese poetry, as in everything, Weinberger notes, nothing is more difficult than simplicity.

Simplicity is particularly difficult for certain academics, it seems. A professor, who had read Weinberger's comments on Wang Wei's poem in a magazine, furiously complained about the "crimes against Chinese poetry" Weinberger had allegedly committed by neglecting "Boodberg's cedule." Weinberger later discovered that this cryptic reference was to a series of essays privately published by professor Peter A. Boodberg in 1954 and 1955 entitled "Cedules from a Berkeley Workshop in Asiatic Philosophy" ('cedule' is an obscure word for 'scroll, writing, schedule'). "Boodberg ends his 'cedule' with his own version of the poem, which he calls 'a still inadequate, yet philologically correct, rendition ... (with due attention to grapho-syntactic overtones and enjambment)':

The empty mountain: to see no men,
Barely earminded of men talking - countertones,
And antistrophic lights-and-shadows incoming deeper the deep-treed grove
Once more to glowlight the blue-green mosses - going up (The empty mountain...)

To me this sounds like Gerard Manly Hopkins on L S D, and I am grateful to the furious professor for sending me in search of this, the strangest of the many Weis."

The multiple translations of Wang Wei's poem are a door into the incredible spectrum of human thinking. This small delicate poem and its translations show how culture, translation and individual thinking change a work of art. I found myself writing a "translation" of the poem to discover yet another prismatic dimension of this jewel of a poem.

Octavio Paz, describe a Mexico, al Mexicano y al Latinoamericano desde su realacion con la soledad y por ello con el resto de sus semejantes. Un libro que vale la pena leer, aunque no siempre se este de acuerdo con el planteamiento del autor. El tema invita a la reflexion sobre lo que somos y como influimos en el destino de nuestras naciones.

Aunque no estes de acuerdo con todas las ideas de Octavio Paz, las reflexiones y los analisis de esta mente birllante ayudan a entender nuestra magnifica raza. La escritura lleva al lector al pasado y al presente, para poder entender la condicion de Mexico y su gente. Todos los Mexicanos deberian de sentarse a devorar este libro que clarificara las costumbres de nuestra gente y nos ayuda a entender que tiene que cambiar en nuestra politica para tener un pais mas prospero.

Este libro está formado por tres partes: dos ensayos -el primero escrito en los años cincuenta, el segundo, Postdata, en 1975- y una entrevista que le hacen a Paz en 1979 a propósito de los anteriores.

Pasados casi los 50 años en que Paz predice que nos plantearemos preguntas nuevas, "El Laberinto de la Soledad" sigue hoy tan vigente para los mexicanos como cuando se escribió. Comienza el autor describiendo a los mexicanos tal y como somos, al méxico-norteamericano o Pachuco, pero también nos muestra a los norteamericanos, sobretodo cómo los vemos nosotros.

Encontramos explicadas muchas facetas de nuestra sociedad y de nuestro ser; por ejemplo, la mentira, que en nuestro país es ya institucional y en la que nos movemos con naturalidad y que ha propiciado entre otros desastres la falsificación de la historia que aprendemos en la escuela y la longevidad del sistema político que padecemos.

Encontramos descripciones de fiestas populares, donde el autor nos recuerda esa verdad de que los países ricos no tienen fiestas populares porque no las necesitan. Es cierto, en la India, por ejemplo, las fiestas populares son muy importantes, pero ¿qué fiestas populares se festejan en los Estados Unidos?. Nos dice Paz que los mexicanos gritan desaforadamente durante una hora en la fiesta en que se recuerda el "grito" de Independencia para callar mejor el resto del año, la típica resignación del pueblo mexicano. También nos explica la manera como celebramos los "días de muertos". La relación de los mexicanos con la muerte es muy especial, difícil de entender para otras culturas. El mexicano desprecia a la muerte, a la vez la venera y piensa que cada quien recibe la muerte que se busca.

Más adelante compara situaciones históricas de México, como la Revolución y la Reforma, sabiamente nos hace ver que las revoluciones no se hacen con palabras, ni las ideas se implantan con decretos. Analiza grandes personajes como José Vasconcelos y Alfonso Reyes.

Hay especialmente unas páginas del libro, que me gustaría que leyeran los políticos actuales de México. Nos explica cómo se convirtieron en profesionales de la política, cómo el banquero sucede al general revolucionario y por qué existen diferencias atroces entre los ricos y los desposeídos, es decir, desequilibrio.

En "Postdata" trata de explicar los hechos sangrientos del 68, ubicándolos en un contexto mundial y nacional. Nos habla de la realidad que se vivía en esos años: cómo se estaba desarrollando el país y hasta cómo la televisión mexicana "anestesiaba" al público con su programación. Profetiza que la debilidad del mercado interno paralizaría el desarrollo si el gobierno no hacía algo y que a medida que la crisis política se enconara el poder del PRI dependería de la fuerza física de las armas. La realidad que vivimos en 1997 hace superfluo cualquier otro comentario.

"Vuelta a El labertinto de la soledad" explica y complementa las dos obras anteriores.

La verdad es que ¡qué buena prosa escriben los poetas!. Este libro, además de la profundidad de los pensamientos que expone, es un gusto de leer por su lenguaje, sus expresiones, en fin, la manera que tiene de expresar sus teorías.

Octavio Paz nació en 1914. En 1990 recibió el Premio Nobel de Literatura. De esta obra el mismo autor nos dice que es una declaración, no un tratado de sociología.