Editing Octavio Paz (section)

==Writings==
A prolific author and poet, Paz published scores of works during his lifetime, many of which have been translated into other languages. His poetry has been translated into English by [[Samuel Beckett]], [[Charles Tomlinson]], [[Elizabeth Bishop]], [[Muriel Rukeyser]] and [[Mark Strand]]. His early poetry was influenced by [[Marxism]], [[surrealism]], and [[existentialism]], as well as religions such as [[Buddhism]] and [[Hinduism]]. His poem, "Piedra de sol" ("Sunstone"), written in 1957, was praised as a "magnificent" example of surrealist poetry in the presentation speech of his Nobel Prize.

His later poetry dealt with love and eroticism, the nature of time, and Buddhism. He also wrote poetry about his other passion, modern painting, dedicating poems to the work of [[Balthus]], [[Joan Miró]], [[Marcel Duchamp]], [[Antoni Tàpies]], [[Robert Rauschenberg]], and [[Roberto Matta]]. As an essayist, Paz wrote on topics such as [[Politics of Mexico|Mexican politics]] and [[Economy of Mexico|economics]], [[Pre-Columbian art|Aztec art]], [[anthropology]], and [[Human sexuality|sexuality]]. His book-length essay, ''[[The Labyrinth of Solitude]]'', delves into the minds of his countrymen, describing them as hidden behind masks of solitude; due to their [[History of Mexico|history]], their identity is lost between a pre-Columbian and a Spanish culture, negating either. A key work in understanding [[Culture of Mexico|Mexican culture]], the essay greatly influenced other Mexican writers, such as [[Carlos Fuentes]]. Ilan Stavans wrote that Paz was "the quintessential surveyor, a [[Dante]]'s Virgil, a Renaissance man".<ref>{{cite book
| last = Stavans
| title = Octavio Paz: A Meditation|publisher=University of Arizona Press
| year = 2003|page=3
}}
</ref>

[[File:Paz0.jpg|thumb|upright|Octavio Paz]]
Paz wrote the play ''La hija de Rappaccini'' in 1956. The plot centers around a young Italian student who wanders about Professor Rappaccini's beautiful gardens, where he espies the professor's daughter, Beatrice. He is horrified to discover the poisonous nature of the garden's beauty. Paz adapted the play from an 1844 short story by American writer [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]], which was also entitled "[[Rappaccini's Daughter]]"; he combined Hawthorne's story with sources from the Indian poet [[Vishakadatta]] and influences from Japanese [[Noh]] theatre, Spanish ''[[autos sacramentales]]'', and the poetry of [[William Butler Yeats]]. The play's opening performance was designed by the Mexican painter [[Leonora Carrington]]. In 1972, Surrealist author [[André Pieyre de Mandiargues]] translated the play into French as ''La fille de Rappaccini '' (Editions Mercure de France). First performed in English in 1996 at the [[Gate Theatre]] in London, the play was translated and directed by [[Sebastian Doggart]] and starred [[Sarah Alexander]] as Beatrice. The Mexican composer Daniel Catán adapted the play as an opera in 1992.

Paz's other works translated into English include several volumes of essays, some of the more prominent of which are ''Alternating Current'' (tr. 1973), ''Configurations'' (tr. 1971), in the [[UNESCO Collection of Representative Works]],<ref>[http://www.unesco.org/culture/lit/rep/pop.php?fnc=record&lng=en_GB&record=5821 Configurations], Historical Collection: UNESCO Culture Sector, [[UNESCO]] official website</ref> ''The Other Mexico'' (tr. 1972); and ''El Arco y la Lira'' (1956; tr. ''The Bow and the Lyre'', 1973). In the United States, [[Helen Lane]]'s translation of ''Alternating Current'' won a [[National Book Award]].<ref name=nba1974>
[https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1974 "National Book Awards – 1974"]. [[National Book Foundation]]. Retrieved 2012-03-11. <br />
There was a [[List of winners of the National Book Award#Translation|National Book Award category Translation]] from 1967 to 1983.</ref>
Along with these are volumes of critical studies and biographies, including of [[Claude Lévi-Strauss]] and [[Marcel Duchamp]] (both, tr. 1970), and ''The Traps of Faith'', an analytical biography of [[Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz]], the Mexican, seventeenth-century nun, [[List of feminist poets|feminist poet]], mathematician, and thinker.

Paz's works include the poetry collections ''¿Águila o sol?'' (1951), ''La Estación Violenta'', (1956), ''Piedra de Sol'' (1957). In English, ''Early Poems: 1935–1955'' (tr. 1974) and ''Collected Poems, 1957–1987'' (1987) have been edited and translated by [[Eliot Weinberger]], Paz's principal translator into American English.