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Selected Sonnets: A Bilingual Edition
The most important writer in Portuguese history and one of the preeminent European poets of the early modern era, Luís de Camões (1524–80) has been ranked as a sonneteer on par with Petrarch, Dante, and Shakespeare. Championed and admired by such poets as William Blake, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Edgar Allan Poe, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Camões was renowned for his intensely personal sonnets and equally intense life of adventure.
The first significant English translation of Camões’s sonnets in more than one hundred years, Selected A Bilingual Edition collects seventy of Camões’s best—all musically rendered by William Baer into contemporary, yet metrical and rhymed, English-language poetry, with the original Portuguese on facing pages.
A comprehensive selection of sonnets that demonstrates the full range of Camões’s interests and invention, Selected Sonnets will prove indispensable for both students and teachers in comparative and Renaissance literature, Portuguese and Spanish history, and the art of literary translation.
“Splendidly produced. . . .William Baer brings [Camões’s] sonnets forward as accomplished, indeed often beautiful, examples of this Renaissance invention.”—Jeffery Hart, National Review
“William Baer’s artistry gives the reader translations that convey much of the poetry’s original directness and simplicity, along with the intensity, timbre, and subtlety of the original imagery and themes. . . . [ Selected Sonnets ] will renew interest in these superb sonnets and bring Camões deserved readership in English.”— Choice
The first significant English translation of Camões’s sonnets in more than one hundred years, Selected A Bilingual Edition collects seventy of Camões’s best—all musically rendered by William Baer into contemporary, yet metrical and rhymed, English-language poetry, with the original Portuguese on facing pages.
A comprehensive selection of sonnets that demonstrates the full range of Camões’s interests and invention, Selected Sonnets will prove indispensable for both students and teachers in comparative and Renaissance literature, Portuguese and Spanish history, and the art of literary translation.
“Splendidly produced. . . .William Baer brings [Camões’s] sonnets forward as accomplished, indeed often beautiful, examples of this Renaissance invention.”—Jeffery Hart, National Review
“William Baer’s artistry gives the reader translations that convey much of the poetry’s original directness and simplicity, along with the intensity, timbre, and subtlety of the original imagery and themes. . . . [ Selected Sonnets ] will renew interest in these superb sonnets and bring Camões deserved readership in English.”— Choice
199 pages, Paperback
Published April 1, 2008
About the author
Luís de Camões
444 books304 followersLuís Vaz de Camões (Portuguese pronunciation: [luˈiʃ vaʃ dɨ kaˈmõȷ̃ʃ]; sometimes rendered in English as Camoens; c. 1524 – June 10, 1580) is considered Portugal's, and the Portuguese language's, greatest poet. His mastery of verse has been compared to that of Shakespeare, Vondel, Homer, Virgil, and Dante. He wrote a considerable amount of lyrical poetry (in Portuguese and in Spanish) and drama but is best remembered for his epic work Os Lusíadas (The Lusiads). His recollection of poetry The Parnasum of Luís de Camões was lost in his lifetime.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lu%C3%AD...
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lu%C3%AD...
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 16, 2023
Luís de Camões is to the Portuguese what Shakespeare is to the English. In fact the two were 16th century contemporaries, although they probably didn’t know about one another. Both deeply shaped the respective languages that they used. Camões was a particular master of the sonnet and this book contains those that can definitely be attributed to him. It is amazing how vivid these superb compositions remain, and how their author is almost tangibly present in them, considering they were written ca. 500 years ago! Since poetry can be especially difficult to comprehend in a foreign language, even one that is otherwise familiar, this bilingual edition is especially useful: one gets the beautiful feel and sound of the original, without having to compromise one’s understanding.
December 23, 2020
My first foray into reading Portuguese was “Os Lusíadas” by Luis de Camões. I remember the look on the clerk who sold me the book. It was something of a mix of “do you know what you are getting into?” or perhaps, “Why this book? there are so many others?” Well despite her look, I thoroughly enjoyed that book. Sadly, it took me many years to follow up and read his Sonnets.
Sonnets? Perhaps you are agreeing with that clerk. When learning a new language, why not take a look into its history. The English have Shakespeare, the Spaniards have Cervantes and the Portuguese have Camões. All three lived around the same time and they wrote with beautiful words, told amazing tales and their works transcend time.
Sadly, Camões is not as well known in the English world. Well I hope that changes. The man wrote so elegantly that he deserves a wider audience. His words still resonate to this day:
005
Amor é um fogo que arde sem se ver
é ferida que dói, e não sente;
é um contentamento descontente,
é dor que desatina sem doer.
Love is a fire that burns unseen
It is a wound that aches but not felt
It is contently discontent
It is grief that defuses without pain.
(my apologies for my loose translation)
Just a snippet but the rest of the sonnet is worthy of Will Shakespeare.
The sonnets cover love, in praise of famous people, nature, and mythical tales. All of these themes are found in Os Lusíadas but in short verse, they are simple and profound. I thoroughly enjoyed this book as the snow fell on my city. I am not sure Camões would have liked the snow but he could have written a verse or two even on the white matter. Or not.
Sonnets? Perhaps you are agreeing with that clerk. When learning a new language, why not take a look into its history. The English have Shakespeare, the Spaniards have Cervantes and the Portuguese have Camões. All three lived around the same time and they wrote with beautiful words, told amazing tales and their works transcend time.
Sadly, Camões is not as well known in the English world. Well I hope that changes. The man wrote so elegantly that he deserves a wider audience. His words still resonate to this day:
005
Amor é um fogo que arde sem se ver
é ferida que dói, e não sente;
é um contentamento descontente,
é dor que desatina sem doer.
Love is a fire that burns unseen
It is a wound that aches but not felt
It is contently discontent
It is grief that defuses without pain.
(my apologies for my loose translation)
Just a snippet but the rest of the sonnet is worthy of Will Shakespeare.
The sonnets cover love, in praise of famous people, nature, and mythical tales. All of these themes are found in Os Lusíadas but in short verse, they are simple and profound. I thoroughly enjoyed this book as the snow fell on my city. I am not sure Camões would have liked the snow but he could have written a verse or two even on the white matter. Or not.
December 13, 2022
Quando da bela vista e doce risto romando estao mesu olhos mantimento, tao enlevado sinto o pensamento que me faz ver na terra o Paraiso. <3
Que de tanta estanhezza sois ao munbdo, que nao e de estranhar, Dama exelente, que quem vos frez fizesse ceu e estrelas.
Que de tanta estanhezza sois ao munbdo, que nao e de estranhar, Dama exelente, que quem vos frez fizesse ceu e estrelas.
July 5, 2022
Trop bien
Poemes sur une vie malheureuse en amour, sur le mal etre
Fais penser a Lamartine
Poemes sur une vie malheureuse en amour, sur le mal etre
Fais penser a Lamartine
October 28, 2014
Édition bilingue portugais-français. Ces sonnets sur la souffrance amoureuse ne manquent pas d'élégance . La Renaissance conjugue ainsi la violence de la conquête des Amériques, des guerres de religions, de l'Inquisition et la subtilité des émotions, des sentiments. Camoes, Ronsard, même langage ?
April 13, 2010
Not as good as Landeg White's translations, but a worthy effort nevertheless.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews