Reviews

Madwomen: The "locas Mujeres" Poems of Gabriela Mistral, a Bilingual Edition by Gabriela Mistral

spacestationtrustfund's review

3.0

This is a bilingual edition, in English and Spanish. I wasn't necessarily impressed by the translations themselves, but the inclusion of the original poems was excellent.

shoshin's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

4.0

Mistral clearly resonates with the women of the Iliad. "Electra in the Mist" and "Clytemnestra" both hit very, very hard. 

elizabethlk's review against another edition

3.0

I grabbed Madwomen after being told of it for the first time, and thinking it sounded like just my thing. While it is a decent enough poetry collection, I find myself a little disappointed. This wasn't really for me.

The translation appears to be well done and well thought out, but there still seems to be something lost in translation. Regardless, many of the poems do still stand out as being something special. The Farm Woman was perhaps my favourite. I found her Greek mythology inspired poems to be interesting. Mistral's poems are a bit overly flowery for my taste, but the title of "Madwomen" seems completely correct in the best possible way.

I would recommend this for anyone looking for a poetry volume that has been translated to English. I'm not sure I have much interest in reading anything else from Mistral.

chrestomathies's review against another edition

3.5

Favorites: La Otra (The Other), La Desvelada (The Sleepless Woman), La Cabelluda (The Shaggy Woman), and Clitemnestra (Clytemnestra).

philosophie's review against another edition

4.0

This is the first time I come across Mistral's poetry, and it's all because of Google's doodle.
I absolutely fell in love with her poems, they truly spoke to my heart. It is definitely a collection in which I will find comfort.

mina_m's review

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

4.0

Oh, how I love bilingual poetry collections!

I especially enjoyed the poems with characters from Greek mythology.

livjul's review against another edition

the first of hopefully many bilingual/literal books for me, I found it extremely helpful to read the original poems alongside the english translations. not all of them felt quite right, though a few are quite powerful. notable favorites: la bailarina, la contadora.