Canto General

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**Title** **Canto General**
Cover of Jack Schmitt's 'Canto General' English Translation ^[1]
Author	Pablo Neruda
Translator	Jack Schmitt 50th Anniversary Ed.
Country	First edition: Mexico English Translation U.S.A.
Language	English
Series	Latin American Literature and culture
Genre(s)	Poetry
Publisher	University of California Press
Released	1991, 1993, 2000
Media type	Print Hardback and Paperback
Pages	407p
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 South America.

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, a recording of the Canto XII nearly in its entirety, by the prominent Chilean band Los Jaivas; the rendering of Sube a Nacer Conmigo Hermano present in this album is especially renowned. See also the list of recordings.