Spring 2015
Canto General is Latin America’s Divine Comedy, a
vast and integrated portrait of the New World and its long
journey towards self-recognition for all those others “like
you, called Antonio.” The New World has suffered grievous
harm from history, a pattern of harm that links an immense
continent, a long bridge of many countries, and a set of
island nations (all with a combined population of 615 million
people) to a destiny of power and progress. Neruda’s epic –
like all great epics -- reminds us who we were and encourages
who we might be.
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Note: to join the Neruda Seminar at a distance, free of charge, and receive additional translations
and seminar notes contact the author ([email protected]). Poets include Gabriel Mistral
(Chile), Alfonsina Storni (Argentina), Cesar Vallejo (Perú), Julia de Burgos (Puerto Rico), and Octavio
Paz (México).
Bibligraphy:
Galeano, Eduardo. Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent. Tr.
Cedric Belfrage. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1973.
Neruda, Pablo. Canto General. Mexico: Editorial Seix Barral, 1986.
Neruda, Pablo. Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair (Veinte Poemas de Amor), tr. W. S.
Merwin. New York: Penguin Classics, 2006.
Neruda, Pablo. Selected Poems, ed. Nathaniel Tarn. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1990.
Neruda, Pablo. The University of Chile’s excellent online resource is available at
http://www.neruda.uchile.cl/
The Linnet's Wings