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Rating: 
Summary: Terrific
Review: ... but I am mystified by the fact that some of his best translations are not in the book. "Sexual Waters" by Neruda, to take one glaring example. Some of the better Transtromer. Some of the Rilke. Smaller type with more translations would have been better, maybe--or else, a longer book. Bly's translations have been attacked, of course, as not being wholly accurate. But who cares? They are magnificent versions, wonderful poems that stand wholly on their own.
Rating: 
Summary: Incredibly unfamiliar but highly intellectual
Review: All of the poems in this book were written in some other language. Robert Bly has attempted to arrange the poets in the order in which he discovered them. The index only lists poems, not important people, but Bly's comments include incredible intellectual connections to this work, such as, "Ludwig Wittgenstein knew that Trakl was a genius, and he set aside money for Trakl through a patron," (p. 138). I consider Wittgenstein important in this book because the relationship between philosophy and silence is expressed so well in the final verse of the poem "The Twelve Lies" by Rumi (1204-1273):
So just keep silent, and if anyone says to you,
"No communion takes place without words," just say to him,
"I heard that lie." (p. 347).
There are 14 poems by Rumi in this book, in the first of which:
The kind of love we know of is too great for sober reason (p. 334).
The basic problem of philosophy is stated well in the fifth verse of "The Twelve Lies" :
Daydreamers with sluggish eyes say,
"Your poems and your teaching stories are nothing but daydreams."
I heard that lie. (p. 346).
David Koresh, who was briefly famous before he died near Waco, Texas on April 19, 1993, had an exalted image of himself as a prophet much like the seventh verse :
They say, "The keeper of secrets never tells
A single secret except to an intermediary."
People love that lie. (p. 346).
The first verse might be considered a poetic attempt to state a joke that could be fundamental to the nature of my own unfinished project, MY VIETNAM WAR JOKE BOOK:
People say, "The one you love is unfaithful."
That's the first lie. (p. 346).
At its worst, poetry can suggest words randomly put together in a way that might mean something in another language, but which we read with an apprehensiveness that makes us feel like a line in this book:
The immense treeless plains of the human brain have gotten folded and refolded 'til they are the size of a fist. (p. 14).
Rating:
Summary: A Book of Wonders
Review: Robert Bly's value and weight as a poet is remarkable. Whether he's one of your favorite American poets or not, Bly must be profusely acknowledged for his contribution to poetry in two distinct areas: as a devoted advocate of poetry itself, introducing others -particularly people who may not have called themselves lovers of poetry, to begin with- to the most exquisite form of "making language."
Secondly, as a bridge to what the book has to offer, Bly has given us access to a wealth of seminal poets, encompassing an ambitious entry to poetry's history and breadth of epiphanies, through his translations.
In any anthology, particularly when poetry is the matter at hand, the likelihood for disappointments is great. As the reviewer before stated, there are exclusions here that may seem inexplicable. Yet, what you must appreciate are the gems which were included since I don't believe that there's a single poem here which does not deserve its inclusion.
I would have liked, of course, more poems altogether -particularly from Rilke and Neruda since Bly has translated a fair amount of their extensive works- yet I suggest that you come to this book as a generous "sampler" of great world poetry.
In my case, I already own each book of translations these poems come from, so I bought it to have as a "traveling companion." In your case, you may regard it as the beginning of a friendship with some poets from different times and cultures, and as some of them speak particularly to you, you ought to get Bly's complete translations of poets.
Finally, specially for those among you not familiar yet with Bly's translating style, if not a warning a certain clarification may be useful. There are fundamentally two types of great translators -of course there are many more bad ones in both camps.
In one hand, there are translators whose devotion to the original is expressed by their faithful concern with conveying the original meaning, at times, at the expense of cadence or the temporal/cultural distance between poet and reader.
Others, very much the case with Bly's approach, conveying the essence of a poem means taking certain liberties with the original, not as much as an absence of loyalty to the poet's words but out of the uttermost passion to have you be touched by the essence of their poetic vision. For instance, Rilke is more "American" and "contemporary" here that it may be in Stephen Mitchell's translations -which are just as stunning in their own ways.
I appreciate Bly's work even when, like in the Spanish-speaking poets' case which I can read in the original, I may not agree with certain choices he's made. To read poetry is to interpret it, the ultimate gift of a great poem -maybe even a test of greatness as much as a gift- is its capacity to deeply move people in completely different ways. That's where poetry's power lies, so it'd be unfair to consider the translator any more permeable and subjective than any given reader.
Come to these poems to be changed, to be taught to see even more widely and deeply that you may already have. I'm sure Ghalib, Transtromer, or Miguel Hernandez would agree with that.
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