An anthology of Spanish poetry, drama, fiction, legends, and religious prose from the twelfth to the mid-seventeenth century. Intended for English-speaking students of Spanish. Includes glossary, notes on vocabulary, and brief introductions to the writers.

John A. Crow, a leading Hispanist, has culled the best translations available--by such poets as Richard Franshawe, Edward Fitzgerald, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, William Cullen Bryant, Robert Southey, and many distinguished modern poets--of poems ranging from the eleventh century to the present to make this the most complete collection of both Spanish and Spanish American poetry in English translation. Represented here is work by such twentieth century poets as Gabriela Mistral, Octavio Paz, Federico García Lorca, César Vallejo, Pablo Neruda, Anotnio Machado, and Juan Ramón Jiménez, many of whom the editor has known personally. The inclusion of many contemporary poets whose verse has never before appeared in English makes this anthology a particularly valuable collection.

"The bringing of Spanish seventeenth-century verse plays to the contemporary English-speaking stage involves a number of fundamental questions. Are verse translations preferable to prose, and if so, what kind of verse? To what degree should translations aim to be 'faithful'? Which kinds of plays 'work', and which do not? Which values and customs of the past present no difficulties for contemporary audiences, and which need to be decoded in performance?Which kinds of staging are suitable, and which are not? To what degree, if any, should one aim for 'authenticity' in staging? In this volume, a group of translators, directors, and scholars explores these and related questions."--Jacket