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Almost lost to literary history, Felipe Alfau was rediscovered in 1988 with the republication of his proto-postmodernist novel Locos; in 1990 his only other novel, Chromos (written in 1948), was published for the first time, winning great critical acclaim and a nomination for the National Book Award. His published work is now complete with Sentimental Songs, his collection of poetry.
Written between 1923 and 1987 (thus predating and postdating his novels), these poems represent a lifetime’s reflections and personal experiences. Unlike the novels, the poems were written in Alfau’s native tongue of Spanish and look back to classic Spanish poetry of late nineteenth century. But like his novels, the mocking note of parody is frequently heard. As translator Ilan Stavans writes in his introduction, Sentimental Songs “is a rebuttal of Romanticism, but it emerges from the very ranks of the Romantic movement and its sense of life.”
This is a bilingual edition, with Alfau’s Spanish facing Stavans’s English translations (made in consultation with the author). A substantial introduction places the poems in the context of Alfau’s fiction and in the larger context of Spanish poetry in general.
Written between 1923 and 1987 (thus predating and postdating his novels), these poems represent a lifetime’s reflections and personal experiences. Unlike the novels, the poems were written in Alfau’s native tongue of Spanish and look back to classic Spanish poetry of late nineteenth century. But like his novels, the mocking note of parody is frequently heard. As translator Ilan Stavans writes in his introduction, Sentimental Songs “is a rebuttal of Romanticism, but it emerges from the very ranks of the Romantic movement and its sense of life.”
This is a bilingual edition, with Alfau’s Spanish facing Stavans’s English translations (made in consultation with the author). A substantial introduction places the poems in the context of Alfau’s fiction and in the larger context of Spanish poetry in general.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author:
Ilan Stavans is Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College. He is the author of many books, including Spanglish: The Making of a New American Language and A Most Imperfect Union. He is also general editor of The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature.
From Publishers Weekly:
Alfau (National Book Award nominee for Chromos ) continued to write poetry in his native Spanish even after immigrating to New York in 1916. This bilingual edition of his collected poems begins with the epigraph: "I am a Romantic, and that's why / I make fun of Romanticism." The most successful poems of this collection do just that. Some criticize the 19th-century literary movement directly, as in "Romanticism," which disparages the "suicidal spirit" of such writers as Wordsworth and Becquer. Alternately, Alfau mocks Romanticism by imitating its tone, as in "Urban Youth," where he recalls "days of wine and roses: / wine, turned sour with the years; / roses . . . now thorns amid the rubbish." At times, however, such works seem more to embody sentimentality than to mock it, as in "Thought": "Oh to be a drop of rain / and in happiness, a smile!" Overall, as rendered in Stavans's faithful if workmanlike translation, the collection is provocative, often sardonic and sometimes beautifully lyrical. There are also surprises, such as "Afro-Ideal Evocation," an appeal to a black urban dandy that in places evokes the work of Marcus Garvey.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherDalkey Archive Press
- Publication date1992
- ISBN 10 0916583996
- ISBN 13 9780916583996
- BindingPaperback
- Edition number1
- Number of pages55
- Rating
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Sentimental Songs
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Dalkey Archive Press
(1992)
ISBN 10: 0916583996
ISBN 13: 9780916583996
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