Ilan Stavans Records Borges and Neruda

We previously shared Ilan Stavans reading Rubén Darío in Spanish and English; today we're posting his recordings of Jorge Luis Borges and Pablo Neruda.

These two poems have very little affinity with each other, reflecting the difference in Borges' and Neruda's approaches: one concerned with experimentation, the other more overtly political. In a larger context, this speaks to the great spectrum of twentieth-century Latin American poetry.

"Borges and I," translated by Willis Barnstone:

Jorge Luis Borges

 

Pablo Neruda's "I Explain a Few Things," translated by Ilan Stavans:

Pablo Neruda