Susquehanna University Press

First published in Spanish in 1917, this diary records the poet's inspirations during his 1916 train trip from Madrid to Cadiz and subsequent sea voyage to New York City, where he married, and then from NYC back to Madrid. It is divided into six discrete sections: "Towards the Sea," "Love at Sea", "Eastern united States", " Return Voyage's Sea," "Spain," and "Memories of the Eastern US Written in Spain." Jimenes won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1956, and this bilingual edition of an early work, with its smooth English translation and informative introductory by Michael predmore ( a recognized Jimenez Scholar), is an exciting publication. The use of free verse, or "naked verse" as Jimenez preferred to label it, yields some of the most beautiful poetry of the early-20th-century Hispanic world and in equal measure, some of the most lyrical of prose poems. The richly nuanced pictorial images and varied rhythms are vehicles to usher in the age of modern symbolism of poetry written in Spanish, and this collection shows why Jimenez deserves to be on the same footing as greats like Ruben Dario and Federico Garcia Lorca. This reviewer regrets only the ragged right margin of the prose section, which gives an otherwise sterling book an amateurish look.

Summing Up: highly recommended. All collections; all levels.--

R. M Fedorchek, Fairfield University. CHOICE October 2004 <Top>

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