Customer Reviews (1)

Another kind of poetry
Nicanor Parra makes a new kind of poetry: el antipoema ( the antipoem ). There are nothing like this. It's a very strange book but averybody could enjoy it. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Never seen anything like it
Nicanor Parra is a Chilean mathematician and poet. I picked up this book because Parra was a favorite of and a big influence on Roberto Bolaño. He is also wildly influential across the rest of Latin American poetry, and American beat poet Alan Ginsberg cited Parra as an inspiration.

Parra holds in contempt conventional poetry and developed an experimental style to distance himself from it. He is a self-described "anti-poet" and produces "anti-poems," analogous to the scientific concept of anti-matter (the necessary counterbalance to matter). Many of these poems read as lists or mathematical equations. They're often self-referential, with a sharp and sarcastic wit. He does not take himself too seriously (although Parra has been nominated for the Nobel Prize in literature several times, so he is taken seriously by others). After his recitations, Parra would shout, "Me retracto de todo lo dicho," or, "I take back everything I said," thus un-doing his reading (or his "anti-reading").

All this theory aside, his poems are pretty interesting, oftentimes entertaining, although I admit I don't "get" some of them. Much more unique in form than most poetry, though. The book is ordered to ease you into the experimentation. The poems in the beginning are more traditional, with the equations toward the end. The last section of the book is a series of cryptic drawings. I quite enjoyed all of this, though I can easily see someone not having the patience for it or dismissing it as pretentious nonsense. Or, as I imagine Parra would prefer, anti-sense.

Looking in the Mirror
There seems to be some confusion in this group of reviews. I am reviewing "Antipoems" translated by Liz Werner and Liz Werner only.

I picked up this collection because Roberto Bolano said that he gave up on Neruda and followed Parra. I love Bolano so I followed him to Parra. Parra is different from Bolano so if you follow Bolano don't be surprised when you discover Parra. They are different; their poetry is different.

Parra is an antipoet. What does that mean? According to the translator's introduction, "antipoetry mirrors poetry, not as its adversary but as its perfect complement."

The book contains both the original Spanish version, which is good (all translation works should contain the original), and the English translation. Ms Werner captures the spirit, the humor, and the sense of Parra's poetry.

One of my favorite poetic ideas is from Holderlin, who calls for us to live poetically. I suppose Parra would say Holderlin is a poet. Parra, the antipoet, responds in his short poem "Poetry Poetry" to Holderlin's sentiment:"Poetry Poetry it's all poetry/we make poetry/ even when we're going to the bathroom." I think you can see from this fragment the antipoet at work.

Parra reminds me of the surrealists but he is not one. There is something quite material about his poetry. Within the poems you feel the steel of a political mind.

One of my favorite poems of the collection is "Stop Racking Your Brain."
The whole poem consists of three lines but it is quite true and sad for people interested in poetry: "Stop Racking your brains/nobody reads poetry nowadays/it doesn't matter if it's good or bad."

Amazing
This is a very nice book, another amazing collection of (anti)poems and visual artefactos by Parra.

Remarkable translation of Liz Werner.

This is an english edition, but since some of these poems have not appeared previously, this book will also be a must-have for Parra followers in the spanish community. But even for old poems, is a very interesting experience to read the antipoems in a different language and to see them find their way in the intricacies of each language. It is necessary to say, however, that in the introduction Werner clearly states that Parra thinks that these are not really translations, because antipoems cannot be translated, so these are rewrittings. But probably the best possible ones.

Parra style, for those that have not heard about him, is better understood by reading it than by using descriptions:

TO MAKE A LONG STORY SHORT

To make a long story short
I leave all my possessions
to the Municipal Slaughterhouse
to the Special Forces Unit of the Police Department
to Lucky Dog Lotto

So now if you want you can shoot

Poetryophiles watch out!
This is it, this is where poetry had to go after its many incarnations and its eventual and fateful death. Parra takes (knowingly or unwittingly) Derrida's concept of differrance and uses it to sledge hammer away his words into his `antipoems'. You'll find no Byron in his pages, or even any Cummings, not to mention any particular style per se. There's so much experimenting -and simplifying- with the word here one doesn't know what one is reading anymore... poems? random (though coherent within themselves) thoughts on paper? cooking recipes? jokes? straightforward reflections on banal life? political commentary?.. yes, all of this.

If there is anything `anti' here is anti-boredom, each `piece' jumps out of the page with offhand easiness, and pomposity is reduced to the reader's own dull lack of imagination. Parra does so much away with droll academic stodginess and allows the invigorating flow of his... expressive, often hilarious and profound, communications; for it is this in the end that comes through -to which anyone at any reading level can enjoy. There are even some `poems' done in a cool artwork-doodle style. What a stimulating and inspired work of art.

Chilean Poetry
There are a wide variety of translations here; in both quality and fidelity to the original spanish. The fact that the poems are presented with both the original and the translation makes this book worth it. The Miller Williams and William Carlos Williams translations are wonderful, but some translations, like those by Ginsberg suffer from perhaps too much beat aesethetic co-oped into the work.Still, Parra is wonderful, full of grit and strange images; yet the Spanish, aside from a few words that are only found in Chilean Spanish, is clear and easy to read.I have even translated some of these poems myself. This is amazing work. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Poemas y Antipoemas - Nicanor Parra
Un libro monumental en el mundo poetico.
Desafortunadamente el autor todavia no recibe el merecido reconocimiento por su obra.

Antipoems at its best!
A must read / Latin American poetry beyond Neruda. ... Read more

Product Description
In the 235 poems that make up these collected declarations, renowned Chilean 'antipoet' Nicanor Parra provides an entertaining and enlightening perspective on the modern world. Delivered as a series of five 'verse speeches' during the 1990s, the poems in After-Dinner Declarations eschew literary ostentation in favor of playful, conversational musings. In a language steeped in colloquialisms, Parra's declarations employ a diverse range of discourses - from puns and allusions to diatribes and eulogies - in order to expose the hypocrisy of human institutions and offer a quipping challenge to those who remain satisfied with the status quo. Parra uses his linguistic brilliance and logical ingenuity to confront some of the most serious problems of our day, addressing perennial motifs such as ecology, human rights and responsibilities, and the limits of scientific knowledge. As the antipoet moves deftly from one topic to another with unbounded inventiveness, he discovers for us a wealth of political, philosophical, and literary insights, as well as unexpected connections between ideas that shape our lives. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Chile's Antipoet, A Truly Unique Voice
Nicanor Parra is celebrated as one of Chile's greatest poetic masters, though he declares himself an "anti-poet," railing against the obscurity and exclusivity of "real" poetry and choosing instead to write verses which can be read and appreciated by the masses. A fascinating and politically active character in love with word games and slightly derisive of the honors heaped upon him, Parra's personality comes alive in //After-Dinner Declarations//, a series of poetic speeches.

Given at various events (after dinner, of course) and riddled with allusions to history, art, and pop and high culture, these "speeches" should rather be thought of as "anti-speeches," for they seem to follow their own stream-of-consciousness logic that is at first disorienting but soon becomes wonderfully enjoyable.

Deceptively heavy, //After-Dinner Declarations// is a quick read, and each of the five speeches can be whisked through in less than an hour. While more extensive footnotes would have been a help at times (especially for readers who have only a passing knowledge of Chilean culture), the translation on the whole was well-executed by Oliphant and faithful to Parra's original and unique poetic voice.

Reviewed by
Katie Cappello

Another great collection of (anti-)poems by Parra
If you are familiar with Nicanor Parra, this latest collection won't disappoint. It's high time he be recognized by the Nobel committee--while he's still with us! ... Read more

Product Description
El talento polifacetico y polemico de Miguel de Unamuno, figura cimera de la, a su vez, polemica y controvertida generacion del 98, ha planteado y sigue planteando problemas a la hora de sacar conclusiones y decidir que texto o que enfoque se ha de privilegiar para leer la obra del Rector salmantino. Despues de pasar revista a las corrientes mas destacadas y representativas en la recepcion critica de la obra narrativa unamuniana, la autora de este "estudio de narratologia estilistica" pretende explorar nuevamente - con la ayuda de los conceptos de 'metadiscurso, intertextualidad y polifonia' - la 'linea discursiva' de 'Niebla'. Un atento estudio previo, formal y estilistico, del 'paratexto' (prologos y epilogo) proporciona nuevas claves de comprension para integrar elementos perturbadores de la linealidad de dicho relato. Finalmente, al tomar en cuenta el contexto historico y literario en que surgio la obra, la autora trata de interrogar los motivos que han impedido que la critica unamuniana valorase "como se debe" no solo algunos aciertos narrativos de claro regusto cervantino (la figura de Antolin S. Paparrigopulos, las novelitas intercaladas, las metalepsis y las "mises en abyme"), sino tambien ciertos juicios "personales" de Miguel de Unamuno sobre Cervantes. ... Read more

Product Description
Dealing with the speeches of two major poets, one known as "the poet" and the other as the "anti poet" of Chile. The speeches recorded in this volume expound and defend two views of poetry. English translations and a critical introduction have also been included. ... Read more