Canto General

Infobox Book |
name = Canto General
title_orig =
translator = Jack Schmitt
50th Anniversary Ed.


image_caption =
author = Pablo Neruda
cover_artist =
country = First edition: Mexico
English Translation U.S.A.
language = Spanish
series = Latin American Literature and culture
genre = Poetry
publisher = University of California Press
pub_date = 1950
english_pub_date = 1991, 1993, 2000
media_type = Print Hardback and Paperback
pages = 407p
isbn = ISBN 0-520-22709-3

"Canto General" is Pablo Neruda's tenth book of poems. It was first published in Mexico in 1950, by Talleres Gráficos de la Nación. Neruda began to compose it in 1938.

"Canto General" consists of 15 sections, 231 poems, and more than 15,000 lines. This work attempts to be a history or encyclopedia of the whole continent of Hispanic America.

The XV Cantos

*First Canto. A Lamp on Earth
*Second Canto. The Heights of Macchu Picchu
*Third Canto. The Conquistadores
*Fourth Canto. The Liberators
*Fifth Canto. The Sand Betrayed
*Sixth Canto. America, I Do Not Invoke Your Name in Vain
*Seventh Canto. Canto General of Chile
*Eighth Canto. The Earth’s Name is Juan
*Ninth Canto. Let the Woodcutter Awaken
*Tenth Canto. The Fugitive
*Eleventh Canto. The Flower of Punitaqui
*Twelfth Canto. The Rivers of Song
*Thirteenth Canto. New Year’s Chorale for the Country in Darkness
*Fourteenth Canto. The Great Ocean
*Fifteenth Canto. I Am

The Heights of Macchu Picchu

"The Heights of Macchu Picchu" ("Las Alturas de Macchu Picchu") is Canto II of the "Canto General". The twelve poems that comprise this section of the epic work have been translated into English regularly since even before its initial publication in Spanish in 1950, beginning with a translation by Hoffman Reynolds Hays [cite web |url=http://www.poetrybay.com/autumn2000/sample_autumn10.html |title=Remembering H. R. Hays |accessdate=2007-11-27 |last=McIntosh |first=Sandy |date=Autumn 2000 |work=Poetry Bay |publisher=] in "The Tiger's Eye", a journal of arts and literature published out of New York from 1947-1949 and followed closely by a translation by Waldeen [cite web |url=http://www.uhmc.sunysb.edu/surgery/waldeen.html |title=Waldeen and the Americas: The Dance Has Many Faces |accessdate=2007-11-27 |last=Cohen |first=Jonathan |date= |work= |publisher=] in 1950 in a pamphlet called "Let the Rail Splitter Awake and Other Poems" for a Marxist publishing house in New York. The first mass-marketed commercial publication of the piece did not come until 1966 with Nathanial Tarn's translation, followed by James Felstiner's translation alongside a book on the translation process, "Translating Neruda" in 1980. Following that is Jack Schmidt's full translation of "Canto General"—the first to appear in English—in 1993. In recent years there have been several partial or full new translations: Stephen Kessler in 2001 for a photo/journey book on the ancient ruins ("Machu Picchu" edited by Barry Brukoff) and Mark Eisner's re-translation of seven of the twelve poems (Cantos I, IV, VI, VIII, X, XI, and XII) for an anthology celebrating the centennial of Neruda's birth in 2004, "The Essential Neruda" [cite web |url=http://www.redpoppy.net/pablo_neruda.php |title=Red Poppy: Biography of Pablo Neruda |accessdate=2008-02-19 |last= |first= |coauthors= |date=2008-02-19 |work= |publisher=www.redpoppy.net ] .

Chronological Bibliography

* “Heights of Macchu Picchu,” Trans. by H. R. Hays. "The Tiger’s Eye", 1.5, (1948). New York : Tiger’s Eye Publishing Co., 1947-1949. (112-122)
* "Let the Rail Splitter Awake and Other Poems," 1950. Trans. Waldeen. Note by Samuel Sillen. New York: Masses & Mainstream.
* “Summits of Macchu Picchu,” Trans. by Ángel Flores, in Whit Burnett, ed., "105 Greatest Living Authors Present the World's Best Stories, Humor, Drama, Biography, History, Essays, Poetry" New York: Dial Press, 1950. (356-367)
* "The Heights of Macchu Picchu," 1966. Trans. Nathanial Tarn. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
* "The Heights of Macchu Picchu", trans. by Hower Zimmon, et al. Iowa City: Seamark Press, 1971.
* “The Heights of Macchu Picchu,” trans. Tom Raworth, in E. Cariacciolo-Tejo, ed., "The Penguin Book of Latin American verse" Baltimore: Penguin, 1971.
* “Heights of Macchu Picchu,” trans. John Felstiner, in John Felstiner, "Translating Neruda: The Way to Macchu Picchu" Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1980.
* "The Heights of Macchu Picchu", trans. David Young. Baldon, Or.: Songs Before Zero Press, 1986.
* "Machu Picchu", trans. Stephen Kessler. Boston: Bullfinch Press, 2001.
* several poems from "The Heights of Macchu Picchu", trans. Mark Eisner in Mark Eisner, ed., "The Essential Neruda". San Francisco : City Lights Books, c2004.

Musical versions

The "Canto General" was intoned by several musicians. The best known intonation is by Mikis Theodorakis, a leftist composer and politician from Greece; the vocals in the original recording are by Maria Farantouri and Petros Pandis, who both sang in Spanish language. Of no less importance is Alturas de Macchu Picchu on texts from The Heights of Macchu Picchu by the prominent Chilean band Los Jaivas; the rendering of Sube a Nacer Conmigo Hermano present in this album, a recording of the Canto XII from the "Heights of Macchu Picchu" section nearly in its entirety, is especially renowned.

List of recordings

* Canto General (Aparcoa album), by Chilean folk band Aparcoa with contributions by composers Sergio Ortega and Gustavo Becerra, staged in 1970 and recorded various times between 1970 and 1974 and released in different countries in collaboration with narrators Marés González (Spanish), Gisela May (German), Humberto Duvauchelle (Chilean) [cite web |url=http://www.geocities.com/transiente/aparcoa.htm |title=Aparcoa |accessdate=2008-09-15 |last= |first= |coauthors= |date= |work= |publisher=www.latinoamericano.cl]
* Canto General (Theodorakis) (1970-1981), oratorio by Mikis Theodorakis, recorded various times:
** Canto General (1974 album), studio recording following the 1974 Paris première, incomplete (4 movements)
** Canto General (1975 album), live recording from Piraeus and Athens, complete recording of the then-valid form of the oratorio (7 movements)
** Canto General (1980 album), live recording from East-Berlin (7 movements)
** Canto General (1981 album), live recording from Munich, first recording of the complete oratorio (13 movements)
** Canto General (1985 album), performed by the "Hamburger Sängerhaufen" (9 movements)
** Canto General (1989 album), studio recording for a ballet performance, conducted by Loukas Karytinos (13 movements)
* Alturas de Macchu Picchu (1982) by Chilean Rock Band Los Jaivas
* Quilapayún Chante Neruda (1983) by Chilean Folk Band Quilapayún contains three songs based on lyrics from Canto General

References