Song of the Simple Truth: The Complete Poems of Julia De Burgos

Rating:
Summary: REVIEW QUOTES
Review: "...The translated poems stand tall as de Burgos herself." --Publishers Weekly

"Perhaps this is an omen, for as we stand on the eve of one hundred years of the United States' colonial relationship with the island of Puerto Rico, perhaps the publication of this book is a symbolic representation of Puerto Rican authenticity and a sign of how seriously it must be taken." --American Book Review

"Julia de Burgos (1914-1953) is considered Puerto Rico's greatest female poet... Seductive in their raw emotional honesty her poems define and make concrete the spongy category of love poetry...Here, poetry is the poet incarnate: defiant, proud, a 'nude of restlessness.'" --Harvard Review

Rating:
Summary: The passion and politics of a Puerto Rican legend
Review: "Song of the Simple Truth: The Complete Poems of Julia de Burgos" is a landmark volume for Puerto Rican studies. This book brings together all 203 known poems by de Burgos, who was born in Puerto Rico in 1914 and died in New York City in 1953. This is a bilingual edition, with the author's Spanish poems paired with the English translations by Jack Agueros. Agueros also compiled this volume, and wrote a fascinating introduction.

De Burgos writes about politics, nature, inner emotions, and the poet's vocation. She often advocates Puerto Rican independence, but her political ideas also encompass a vision that is pan-American, and even global. She pays tribute to a number of iconic figures from Latin American culture: Pedro Albizu Campos, Jose Marti, Simon Bolivar, and Jose de Diego.

Much of her work has a surreal, hypnotic quality. She often uses startling, Daliesque language that is rich in images from the natural world. Her love poetry ranges from the melancholy to the ecstatic. Her voice is often paradoxical, often mystical--at times she reminds me of Emily Dickinson. One of my favorite romantic lines comes from poem #63, "Inward Song": "Don't remember me! Feel me! / A nightingale has us in his throat."

In poem #71, "My Road Is Space," de Burgos writes, "I am the dancing imbalance of the stars." This is a good image to apply to her poetry: celestial, joyous, with its own inner logic. All who love Latin American literature or 20th century poetry should explore the bountiful "Song" of Julia de Burgos.

Rating:
Summary: REVIEW QUOTES
Review: "...The translated poems stand tall as de Burgos herself." --Publishers Weekly

"Perhaps this is an omen, for as we stand on the eve of one hundred years of the United States' colonial relationship with the island of Puerto Rico, perhaps the publication of this book is a symbolic representation of Puerto Rican authenticity and a sign of how seriously it must be taken." --American Book Review

"Julia de Burgos (1914-1953) is considered Puerto Rico's greatest female poet... Seductive in their raw emotional honesty her poems define and make concrete the spongy category of love poetry...Here, poetry is the poet incarnate: defiant, proud, a 'nude of restlessness.'" --Harvard Review

Rating:
Summary: The passion and politics of a Puerto Rican legend
Review: "Song of the Simple Truth: The Complete Poems of Julia de Burgos" is a landmark volume for Puerto Rican studies. This book brings together all 203 known poems by de Burgos, who was born in Puerto Rico in 1914 and died in New York City in 1953. This is a bilingual edition, with the author's Spanish poems paired with the English translations by Jack Agueros. Agueros also compiled this volume, and wrote a fascinating introduction.

De Burgos writes about politics, nature, inner emotions, and the poet's vocation. She often advocates Puerto Rican independence, but her political ideas also encompass a vision that is pan-American, and even global. She pays tribute to a number of iconic figures from Latin American culture: Pedro Albizu Campos, Jose Marti, Simon Bolivar, and Jose de Diego.

Much of her work has a surreal, hypnotic quality. She often uses startling, Daliesque language that is rich in images from the natural world. Her love poetry ranges from the melancholy to the ecstatic. Her voice is often paradoxical, often mystical--at times she reminds me of Emily Dickinson. One of my favorite romantic lines comes from poem #63, "Inward Song": "Don't remember me! Feel me! / A nightingale has us in his throat."

In poem #71, "My Road Is Space," de Burgos writes, "I am the dancing imbalance of the stars." This is a good image to apply to her poetry: celestial, joyous, with its own inner logic. All who love Latin American literature or 20th century poetry should explore the bountiful "Song" of Julia de Burgos.

Rating:
Summary: A Life that Burned Love at Both Ends
Review: A dazzling collection that seduces you with a raw emotional honesty that can wake up the dead. Her poems speak directly, refusing literary contortions that have succeeded to alienate so many students from poetry. This book elevates and redefines two categories: Confessionalism and Love Poetry, with such lines as: "Who am I?/ A scream of waves washing itself of dragged and useless paths." ... "My soul? A broken harmony/ that hops over its dementia/ on one cushion of time." ... "When you take me tremulous, / there will be lilies born in my soul,/ and some child asleep from a caress/ in each blue nest that detains you." ... "Let's sing now because life is leaving."

Rating:
Summary: The Gifted Legacy of Latin America's Greatest Female Poet
Review: De Burgos' work truly is something to cherish. The tragic life of this female poet only gave her more determination tow rite the most beautiful prose ever seen. Her work should be treasured for ages to come and it should become a part of everyone's library.

Rating:
Summary: Mesmerizing and Powerful Words to Stir the Mind and Soul
Review: Julia de Burgos is probably Latin America's greatest female poet. Although she never gained the mass media attention Gabriela Mistral gained after winning the Nobel Prize in Literature, de Burgos' work is eternally mesmerizing. Here is a woman who led an unhappy life searching for love, only to find heartbreak most of the times. A protege of Neruda's, de Burgos' political activisim in supporting various causes (including criticism of the Franco regime in Spain and Trujillo regime in the Dominican Republic, in addition to her passionate support for independence for Puerto Rico) is clearly shown in her work. Her romaticism and her cultural reconnection can also be read in some of her poems. The one that realy captivated me was Poem #37, "I Love You," which will cause the reader to grasp their chest with the emotion she has poured in letting the love of her life know how much he moved her world.

Ms. De Burgos died a tragic death in New York, however after it was discovered she had been buried on Hart Island (New York City's version of a potter's field) a movement to give her a proper and glorious funeral took place and although she left the island as an unknown schoolteacher, she returned a national hero. Her glorious return to Puerto Rico was well deserving. I can tell you that reading this book brought me to tears. The great thing is that the entire book is a bilingual edition, which will allow both English & Spanish-language readers to discover one of the greatest poets of the 20th century.

A must have for readers of poerty, Latin American literature, and Spanish students. I also recommend it for those who love Neruda. Best book of poetry I ever read!