Memory of Another River: Collected Prose Poems

Intro/trans:Alexis Levitin illus: Angelo de Sousa

A.E. Housman said that meaning is of the intellect, poetry is not. He went on to explain poetry as a physicality and noted that he couldn't think about poetry while shaving because his hairs would bristle and "the razor cease to aCt." This is the physicality De Andrade has in abundance. His poems do not mean as much as they lead you to feel. De Andrade is well served here by the New Rivers production. If the translator Levitin has not been true to the original, he is an excellent poet in his own right because these poems flow with assurance and are themselves poems-in my opinion, the final test for translations. Readers of Portuguese will find the original text facing the English translation. The introduction gives brief biographical information about De Andrade; the essay, "Poetics," at the conclusion (perfect placement) is also translated by Levitin. In the essay De Andrade gives his definition of poetry rather than his process or technique. De Andrade is not as grim or as primitive and dark as Lorca. His landscape is not so elemental, the colors are warmer, not stark. He is more graceful, more humane, like a Portuguese William Stafford. The book is highly recommended to any library interested in poetry. -- From Independent Publisher

Allgretto Scherzando
Alliance
Almost Mother-of-pearl
Animal Of Words
Beginnings
Children
City
The Clouds
Concerns Of Summer
Exercises With Vowels
The Goats
Homage To Rimbaud
The House
In Passing
In The Shape Of A Star
Insomnia
Journey
May It Be Said Thus
Memory Of Another River
Names
Of The Other Side
On Linen
On Shadows
On The Greenness Of Clover
Other Afternoons
Other Waters
Paragraphs Of Thirst
Plaza Del Viento
Poetics
Portrait Of A Woman
Portrait Of A Young Man
Sheltered From Harm
Snow-covered Hills
Song Of Epirus
South
Sunflowers
Syllable Upon Syllable
A Tale Of Summer
These Sands
To The Passing Of Birds
Unfinished Portrait
Upon Desire
Vast Fields
The Visit Of The Prince
Walt Whitman And The Birds
The Weight Of The Shadow
While Asleep
While I Was Writing
While They Burn
With The First Rains
With The Morning
Writing On The Wall
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®