What We Found at the Library: Poetry

Even though I'm kind of already in the middle of three different books, I grabbed a few poetry books off the shelf in honor of National Poetry Month and took an occasional poetry break.


So, here's what I found in our library...

In Spanish:

• Five Decades: Poems 1925-1970 (Pablo Neruda)
• The Poems of St. John of the Cross
  

Both have the original Spanish poetry with an English translation on the facing page, which helps, but I'm not a huge fan of these translations. For some reason, they tend to throw out the simple, elegant language of many of the original poems and opt for flowery, arcane words instead. The moral: don't judge a Spanish poetry book by the English translations. Ugh.

In English: A Murmur in the Trees (nature poems by Emily Dickinson)

I'll leave you with one of her more familiar poems, which seems particularly apropos in this era of follower counts, social networking and (ahem) blogging...

I'm Nobody! Who are you?
Are you–Nobody–Too?
Then there's a pair of us?
Don't tell! they'd advertise–you know!

How dreary–to be–Somebody!
How public–like a Frog–
To tell one's name–the livelong June–
To an admiring Bog!