Reversible Monuments: Contemporary Mexican Poetry (A Kagean Book) (Spanish Edition) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1556591594 ISBN 13: 9781556591594

Publisher: Copper Canyon Press, 2001

Synopsis

Not since 1959 when Octavio Paz and Samuel Beckett published An Anthology of Mexican Poetry, has there been a collection which so thoroughly examines the poetry of the country known for being "too far from God and too close to the United States." Yet, as Elliott Weinberger writes in his introduction,

"Americans know everything about God, but next to nothing about Mexico—few know that Mexico-particularly when compared to the United States-is a kind of paradise for poets."

Reversible Monuments introduces this "paradise" to American readers. It includes major international writers like Alberto Blanco, Pura Lopez Colome, and David Huerta, as well as exciting younger poets, and poets whose work, while well-known in the Spanish-speaking world has not yet seen publication in English. The twenty-five poets represented are as diverse as their American counterparts: They are urban, educated, younger, well travelled, aware of their literary heritage, and include Buddhists, feminists, Jewish poets, experimental poets, darkly brooding poets, and playfully entertaining poets.

Until the Poem Remains

by Francisco Hernandez

Strip away all the flesh
until the poem remains
with the sonorous darkness of bone.
And smooth the bone, polish it, sharpen it
until it becomes such a fine needle,
that it pierces the tongue without pain
though blood chokes the throat.

Reversible Monuments includes a healthy bilingual selection by each poet, features an introduction by Elliott Weinberger, and gathers the work of esteemed translators alongside that of younger translators. It also includes biographies of the poets, notes on the poetry, and an extensive bibliography of contemporary Mexican poetry.

About this title

About the Author

Mónica de la Torre is a poet and translator. She edited and translated a volume of selected poems by Gerardo Deniz published by Lost Roads and Ditoria in 2000. With artist Terence Gower she is co-author of Appendices, Illustrations & Notes (Smart Art Press, 1999). She was brought up in Mexico City and moved to New York in 1993, when she received a Fulbright grant to study an MFA in Poetry at Columbia University. She’s currently pursuing a doctorate in Comparative Literature at the same university. Her writings about art, poems, and translations have appeared in American Poetry Review, ArtNews, BOMB, Boston Review, Fence, Lit, Mandorla, Pierogi Press, Review: Latin American Literature and Arts, TRANS,and Verse.

Reviews

"Every now and then a word/ crosses the border... marrying another/ it is received hospitably,/ declining or serving as a shield:/ little by little words turn mestiza... The dark hued family of words/ produces a blond daughter." These lines from Antonio Deltoro's "Cartography" are among the offerings of Reversible Monuments: An Anthology of Contemporary Mexican Poetry. Edited by poet and translator M˘nica de la Torre (coauthor of Appendices, Illustrations, & Notes) and Copper Canyon Press managing editor Michael Wiegers, this huge bilingual volume introduces readers to both lyric and narrative Mexican poets of varying backgrounds including indigenous poets writing in Zapotec and Mazatec all born after 1950.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

American readers haven't seen a collection of contemporary Mexican poetry since Mark Strand edited New Poetry of Mexico in 1970, observes Eliot Weinberger, distinguished scholar and translator of Octavio Paz, in his grounding introduction to this unique and substantial bilingual anthology. Since then, an entire "post-Paz generation" of poets has emerged, including the 31 gifted men and women showcased here, most writing in Spanish but some in indigenous languages. Spacious and accommodating, this work presents a generous number of gracefully translated poems by each poet, a felicitous in-depth approach that makes this much more than a sampler, and a sound decision given the poets' propensity for long, dreamy poems. Sensuality is ever-present, as is an intimate connection with nature, both classically pure and, in Efrain Bartolome's poems, under assault. Gods of diverse cultures put in surprising appearances, and many works are metaphysical, although more personal realms are illuminated by Gloria Gervitz and Pedro Serrano, and Josue Ramirez discerns the cosmic on Mexico City streets. This is without doubt a landmark volume, but let's hope that it doesn't stand alone for too long. Donna Seaman
Copyright Š American Library Association. All rights reserved

In Mexico, poets are so highly esteemed that they are considered their country's cultural ambassadors. Many write for daily newspapers, and most are consulted for opinions about politics and social issues. In the United States, on the contrary, poets usually earn their livings as teachers and, "quarantined with [their] writing students," spin their creative wheels by writing to and for academia rather than to society as a whole. Ironically, anthologies of contemporary American poetry frequently on bestsellers lists in Mexico go, like the words of prophets, ignored in their own country. If homegrown poetry ranks low on the list of American pastimes, translations of Mexican poetry could rank even lower. De la Torre, a translator and coordinator of literature and visual arts programming at the Mexican Cultural Institute of New York, and Wiegers, the managing editor at Copper Canyon, hope to change all that. This volume began as an exchange of poets between the United States and Mexico in 1998, sponsored by the Mexican Cultural Institute of New York and the Academy of American Poets. Featuring over 30 contemporary poets (born after or just before 1950), this anthology is a fresh voice from the south of the border. The language and extended metaphors found in many of these poems are original enough to suggest one of Mexico's finest poets, Sor Juana In s de la Cruz, or Spain's equally complex Baroque poet Luis de Gongora. Nevertheless, each poet's work is unique, and the syntax of the poetry is unmistakably modern. Many poets are award winners or recipients of Guggenheim fellowships. The bilingual layout is easy to follow; English translations match the original Spanish nearly stanza for stanza. An added feature is the section containing brief biographies of the translators. Recommended for poetry and Spanish-language collections in academic and public libraries. Nedra C. Evers, Sacramento P.L., CA
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Copper Canyon Press
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: Spanish
• ISBN 10: 1556591594
• ISBN 13: 9781556591594
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 520
• Editor: De La Torre Mónica, Wiegers Michael