Selected Poems of Luis de Góngora

“Luis de Góngora is—alongside his rival Quevedo—the most important and refined poet of Spain’s Baroque period. Góngora is the gentleman poet of verbal flourishes and flurries, constantly surprising the reader with his mastery of nearly all rhetorical figures, especially his idiosyncratic use of metaphor. At its height, in poems such as the Solitudes, his poetry is complex and ornate, woven in an unusual, Latinate syntax and vocabulary that revolutionized Spanish poetry in the seventeenth century—and again in the early twentieth century, when Góngora’s poetry was rediscovered, so to speak. Dent-Young has a fine ear for Góngora’s musicality and a subtle feel for the Spaniard’s unexpected verbal turns and twists, giving us an English version that flows with a Baroque sensibility that rings beautifully true for readers today.”—Sergio Waisman, George Washington University

“Luis de Góngora was the James Joyce of his time, more labyrinthine in diction and allusion, more daring in the icy constellations of his mental and mythical metaphor. As a word inventor three hundred years ahead of his time, he was abused and adored. Three centuries later a group of supremely important Spanish poets, including Federico García Lorca, Pedro Salinas, and Vicente Aleixandre, celebrated the tricentenary of the poet’s death in colorful literary happenings and further honored their semineglected precursor by naming their own avant-garde movement after him. Góngora composed popular songs, sonnets, and culto (learned) long works: the Solitudes and The Fable of Polyphemus and Galatea. As for Joyce and Pound, the publication of the obscure Solitudes incited an industry of academic interpreters, but the beauty of Solitudes needs no prose rephrasing nor extensive annotation. John Dent-Young’s version gives us the fresh magic of the immediate narrative. His formal lyrical recasting of the Polifemo is an English masterpiece. A pioneer work.”—Willis Barnstone, Indiana University

“In translating the notoriously complex Spanish Baroque poet Luis de Góngora, John Dent-Young has chosen to clarify and thus illuminate the text. The result is a highly readable version directed toward a contemporary audience. Góngora has always been a mere rumor for the English-speaking reader: now he is a reality, taking his place beside other masters of the difficult like John Donne and Stéphane Mallarmé.”—Jonathan Mayhew, University of Kansas

“With their stress on metaphor and meaning, these vivid translations invite English readers to savor Góngora’s mastery of different lyric genres. Dent-Young’s bold resetting of the poet’s most brilliant Baroque gems, the First Solitude and The Fable of Polyphemus and Galatea, is especially welcome. His introductions and commentary illuminate many of the mythical allusions, formal considerations, and historical-cultural circumstances informing the poetry. They also alert the reader to the interpretive choices that any translator grappling with Góngora’s inimitable verse has to make.”—Christopher Johnson, Harvard University