At the Edge of Night
Published on 5. March 2009
Book
Hardback
158 pages
978-1-906570-03-3 (ISBN)
Description
At the Edge of Night, a selection from four recent collections by Anise Koltz, Luxembourg's best-known poet, brings the work of this daring and audacious poet to the attention of the English-speaking literary world for the first time. Written in Koltz's prolific seventh decade, these brief poems - with their short, unpunctuated lines, clearly separated stanzas and powerful, direct language - are both personal and universal.
"This poetry feels utterly European... it speaks to the reader directly, jumping cultural barriers."
Anne-Marie Glasheen, translator
"Her austerity is in its way beguiling and inviting."
David Morley, Poetry Review
"This poetry feels utterly European... it speaks to the reader directly, jumping cultural barriers."
Anne-Marie Glasheen, translator
"Her austerity is in its way beguiling and inviting."
David Morley, Poetry Review
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Lancs
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 138 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
332 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-906570-03-3 (9781906570033)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
(Author) ANISE KOLTZ was born in Luxembourg in 1928. She is first and foremost a poet, but is also a translator and photographer. She has written poetry in German and French, and also children's books in Luxembourgish. In 1963 she founded and directed the Journees litteraires de Mondorf (Mondorf Literary Days), which brought together writers from all over the world, with the aim of establishing and maintaining links between the Luxembourg and the international literary scene. She continued in this role until 1974. In 1995, the Mondorf Literary Days were revived and it was decided that all genres would be represented, thereby providing a wide range of authors with a platform for their works. Koltz is a member of the Academie Mallarme (Paris), Pen-Club Belgium and the Institut Grand-Ducal des Arts et des Lettres (Luxembourg). She is one of the founding members and vice-president of The European Academy of Poetry. Over the years she has collaborated with, and translated, poets, writers and artists to create bibliophilic editions, has had a variety of works dedicated to her and has had poems set to music. Translations of her poetry have appeared in Belgium, Colombia, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Macedonia, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Sweden; she has received many prizes and awards for her poetry. (Translator) ANNE-MARIE GLASHEEN, poet, photographer and translator, with an English mother and Belgian father, spent her early childhood in Belgium. A past Chair of the Translators Association, Glasheen has translated fiction, non-fiction, plays, poetry and art history books. Her translated plays have been performed at the Edinburgh and Brighton festivals, in London, the USA and Northern Ireland. In 1998, she was the recipient of the Belgian francophone prize for translation. She co-ordin-ates cultural exchange programmes and festivals, runs literary projects, gives public readings, lectures and broadcasts, runs workshops and writes articles. Her poetry has been published in poetry journals in Belgium, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, the UK and USA and her first collection appeared with Bradshaw Books in 2008. As a photographer her work has been widely exhibited in and around London. Her first major show outside the UK was in Cork, Ireland, in October 2008. (Introducer) CAOLINE PRICE was born in 1956 in Middlesex. She studied Music at York University and violin at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, and has worked as a violinist and teacher in Glasgow, London and Kent, where she now lives. She has published three collections of poetry, the latest of which, Wishbone, appeared with Shoestring Press in 2008. Her poems have won many awards and been published in a wide range of magazines and anthologies over the past twenty years. She has written reviews, has undertaken commissions for Kent and Medway Councils, and has co-edited Four Caves of the Heart, (Headland, 2004), an anthology of women's poetry. In 1997 she was one of ten women poets from Kent, Ireland, France, Francophone Belgium and Flanders who participated in the Muze tour, discussing and reading their work in Kent and Northern Europe. She is a founder member of the N7 poetry workshop in north London, and an active supporter of the Kent & Sussex Poetry Society.
Content
Series Editor's Note, Translator's Preface, Introduction. (i) From The Call of the Sparrow-Hawk / Le cri de l'epervier: Le cri de l'epervier / The Call of the Sparrow-hawk, Le paysage immobile / The Rigid Landscape, Lumiere glaciale / Icy Light, Pansements / Dressings, Commune origine / Common Origin, Le corbeau / The Crow, Sommeil blanc / Fretful Sleep, Mille enclumes / A Thousand Anvils, Bete de nuit / Night Animal, Outils de pierre / Stone Tools, Voyante / Clairvoyant, Le poete / The Poet, La moitie / Half, La terre / The Earth, La langue de nos peres / Our Fathers' Tongue, Qui ecrit ? / Who writes?, A ma mere / To My Mother, Automne / Autumn, A ma mere / To My Mother, Sans fin / Endless, La lune / The Moon, Distances / Distances, L'homme ne me couvre plus / The Man No Longer covers Me, Ne parle plus / Stop talking, Les crimes de ce siecle / This Century's Crimes, Trahison / Betrayal (ii) From Shadow-bearer / Le porteur d'ombre: Prologue / Prologue, J'avance sans filet / I advance without a net, Desert / Desert, Le chemin monte / The path leads up, Je dedie ce poeme / I dedicate this poem, La maison de mon pere / My father's house, La guerre a eclate / War has broken out, Dans les vitrines des magasins / In shop windows, Courez dit-il / Run he said, Sur une mappe monde / On a map of the world, Dans le fleuve / In the river, Meme si j'habite / Though I live, Ocean je suis les humeurs / Ocean I follow the moods, Mon pere m'a transmis / My father handed me, Mon frere plongeur sous-marin / My deep-sea diving brother, Sable / Sand, Ciel / Sky, Vent / Wind, J'ai peur du livre / I'm afraid of the book, Dans ce monde / In this world, Tu voudrais connaitre / You would know, Mes poemes / My poems, Je me debats / I struggle, Chaleur / Heat. Froid / Cold, Entre chien et loup / At Dusk: Between Dog and Wolf (iii)From Fire-eater / L'avaleur de feu: Il est parti / He left, Il n'y a pas de route / There is no road, Tu es celui / You are the one, Lorsque mon amour / When my love, Depuis toujours / All my life, Ma memoire est lourde / My memory is heavy, La lune a empoisonne mes livres / The moon has poisoned my books , Je me decline / I fade, Dans les abattoirs de l'eglise / In the abattoirs of the church, Je cherche un baptistere / I'm searching for a baptistery, Aucune de nos complaintes / None of our laments, L'ange dechu / The fallen angel, Le septieme jour / On the seventh day, A mon reveil / When I wake up, Tire par des chiens / Drawn by dogs, La nuit / At night, Maintenant que je suis habituee / Now I am grown used, Je partirai / I shall leave, Chaque nuit / Every night, Mon absence / My absence, Apres le passage / After the passing Combien de fois / How many times, A ma naissance / At my birth, L'enfant devore / The child devours, Je suis l'erreur fatale / I am my father's fatal error, Il ne faut pas chercher / Do not seek (iv) Blessed be the Serpent / Beni soit le Serpent; Ne me retiens pas / Don't hold me back, Ma mere / My mother, J'ai eu des centaines de meres / I had hundreds of mothers, Mes pieds sans racines / My rootless feet, Etranger je demeure / Foreigner I remain, Sous ma peau / Under my skin, Sur le corps de ma mere / On my mother's body, Ou que j'aille / Wherever I go, Il Satiro danzante / Il Satiro danzante, Pendant la nuit / During the night, La lune vient se reposer / The moon comes and settles, L'immensite de la mer / The vastness of the sea, Le soleil tend des filets / The sun sets a trap, Mes mots sont habitues a laguerre / My words are grown used to war, Il n'y a pas d'espoir / There is no hope, La vie depend / Life depends, Par l'ecriture / Through writing, L'ecriture / Writing, Mon poeme / My poem, Lorsque les paroles / When words, Depuis 76 ans / For 76 years, Je deracine des etoiles / I uproot stars, Tes pas ont invente / Yours steps invented, Nous parlons des langues differentes / We speak different languages, Beni soit le serpent / Blessed be the serpent, Apres avoir verrouille / Having bolted up. Biographical Notes.