Canto General

Canto General
Author(s)	Pablo Neruda
Translator	Jack Schmitt 50th Anniversary Ed.
Country	First edition: Mexico English Translation U.S.A.
Language	Spanish
Series	Latin American Literature and culture
Genre(s)	Poetry
Publisher	University of California Press
Publication date	1950
Published in English	1991, 1993, 2000
Media type	Print Hardback and Paperback
Pages	407p
ISBN	0-520-22709-3
OCLC Number	45095554

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" ("General Song") 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.

1 The XV Cantos
2 The Heights of Macchu Picchu
- 2.1 Chronological Bibliography
3 Musical versions
4 List of recordings
5 References

The XV Cantos

First Canto. A Lamp on Earth.
Second Canto. The Heights of Macchu Picchu
Third Canto. The Conquistadors
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 ^[1] 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 ^[2] 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 John 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 .^[3]

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.

"Canto General – Obra poetico musical" by Chilean folk band Aparcoa in collaboration with Pablo Neruda himself and with contributions by composers Sergio Ortega and Gustavo Becerra was staged on 5 December 1970 at the Teatro Municipal of Santiago de Chile.^[4]
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.
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, recorded various times between 1970 and 1974 and released in different countries in collaboration with narrators Mario Lorca (Chilean), Marés González (Argentinian), Gisela May (German), Humberto Duvauchelle (Chilean) ^[4]
Canto General (1974), by Dutch composer Peter Schat (1935–2003)
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 (1988 album), live recording from St. Paul, Minnesota (USA), first recording of the complete oratorio in the United States, conducted by Mikis Theodorakis and Stefan Sköld, soloists Mary Preus and Petros Pandis, produced by Patricia Porter and recorded by Ralph Karsten, from the July 27, 1986 performance in the O'Shaughnessy Auditorium of the College of St. Catherine (13 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

^ McIntosh, Sandy (Autumn 2000). "Remembering H. R. Hays". Poetry Bay. http://www.poetrybay.com/autumn2000/sample_autumn10.html. Retrieved 2007-11-27.
^ Cohen, Jonathan. "Waldeen and the Americas: The Dance Has Many Faces". http://www.uhmc.sunysb.edu/surgery/waldeen.html. Retrieved 2007-11-27.
^ "Red Poppy: Biography of Pablo Neruda". www.redpoppy.net. 2008-02-19. http://www.redpoppy.net/pablo_neruda.php. Retrieved 2008-02-19.
^ ^a ^b "Aparcoa". www.latinoamericano.cl. Archived from the original on 2009-10. http://web.archive.org/web/20091022103202/http://geocities.com/transiente/aparcoa.htm. Retrieved 2011-02-27.