The Galloping Hour: French Poems Format: Paperback

PIZARNIK, ALEJANDRA

ISBN 10: 081122774X / ISBN 13: 9780811227742

Published by WW Norton Publishers, 2018

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 9780811227742

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Galloping Hour: French Poems Format: Paperback
• Publisher: WW Norton Publishers
• Publication Date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 081122774X
• ISBN 13: 9780811227742
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

A beautifully produced and exquisitely translated edition of French poems by “the best exponent of the poetry of introversion and metaphorical delirium” (Italo Calvino) 

The Galloping Hour: French Poems―never before rendered in English and unpublished during her lifetime―gathers for the first time all the poems that Alejandra Pizarnik (revered by Octavio Paz and Roberto Bolaño) wrote in French. Conceived during her Paris sojourn (1960–1964) and in Buenos Aires (1970–1971) near the end of her tragically short life, these poems explore many of Pizarnik’s deepest obsessions: the limitation of language, silence, the body, night, sex, and the nature of intimacy.

Drawing from personal life experiences and echoing readings of some of her beloved/accursed French authors―Charles Baudelaire, Germain Nouveau, Arthur Rimbaud, and Antonin Artaud―this collection includes prose poems that Pizarnik would later translate into Spanish. Pizarnik’s work led Raúl Zurita to note: “Her poetry―with a clarity that becomes piercing―illuminates the abysses of emotional sensitivity, desire, and absence. It presses against our lives and touches the most exposed, fragile, and numb parts of humanity.” 

About the Authors

Alejandra Pizarnik (1936–1972) was born in Argentina and educated in Spanish and Yiddish. In addition to poetry, Pizarnik also wrote experimental works of theater and prose. She died of a deliberate drug overdose at the age of thirty-six.

A poet, translator, and editor, Patricio Ferrari has translated the works of Fernando Pessoa and Alejandra Pizarnik, among others.

Forrest Gander (b. 1956) was born in the Mojave Desert and grew up, for the most part, in Virginia. With degrees in geology and English literature, Gander is the author of numerous books of poetry, translation, fiction, and essays. Formerly A.K. Seaver Professor of Literary Arts and Comparative Literature at Brown University, Gander has been the recipient of grants from the NEA, the Guggenheim, Howard, Witter Bynner, and Whiting Foundations. His 2019 collection Be With won the Pulitzer prize for poetry and was longlisted for the National Book Award.