
The Trees
Selected Poems 1967-2004
Eugenio Montejo(Author)
Salt Publishing
Will be published approx. on 12. April 2004
Book
Paperback/Softback
184 pages
978-1-84471-033-1 (ISBN)
Description
Winner 2004 International Octavio Paz Prize for Poetry. Featuring "La Tierra Giro para Acercarnos" (The Earth Turned to Bring Us Closer) from the Oscar-nominated film 21 Grams, this new translation of selected poems and prose by Venezuela's leading poet Eugenio Montejo is translated from the original Spanish by Australian poet Peter Boyle.
Covering Montejo's work from the 1960s to 2004 this major selection deals with universal themes of loss, death, family and love as well as reflecting on humanity's relationship to nature in an ever more materialistic and urbanized world. Montejo's poetry would be of special interest to all readers of poetry as well as to those interested in understanding a Latin American perspective on modernization and globalization.
Covering Montejo's work from the 1960s to 2004 this major selection deals with universal themes of loss, death, family and love as well as reflecting on humanity's relationship to nature in an ever more materialistic and urbanized world. Montejo's poetry would be of special interest to all readers of poetry as well as to those interested in understanding a Latin American perspective on modernization and globalization.
Reviews / Votes
The Trees, a selection of Eugenio Montejo's poetry from the last forty years, shares with Kaplinski a fascination with natural images; like Malarme, with endings and beginnings. Peter Boyles rhythmic and limpid translations of the Venezuelan writer aim to fill an absence of Montejo's works available in English. -- Viki Holmes * Poetry Wales * Montejo sees his poetry as 'a melodious chess game we play in solitude with God' but distances himself from the 'political ritual of churches', comments which capture the nature of a poetry that is spiritual but removed from any dogma. His subjects are wide-ranging: the essence of objects of the natural and domestic world, the dangers of consumerism, travel and cities, art, his relationship with family and culture. However, the backdrop is always the insignificance of our individual experience in contrast to life's continuity, our task simply to ensure 'that the song will endure'. -- Belinda Cooke * Shearsman * Like all good translations these versions have the feel and stature of an original; poems of beauty adn loss, the wonder in the everyday - a thrush singing in a tree, a rooster's crow, the 'earthdom' of things, as Boyle translates Montejo's neologism terredad. This is deeply spiritual poetry for agnostic sensibilities, poetry written, Montejo notes in 'Fragments', as 'a prayer spoken to a God who only exists while the prayer lasts.' for here is a volume, both in original and translation, that understands the sacrament of poetry, the power - and fragility - of the thought once expressed, of the word spoken: "the bird you hear singing is in Greek," Montejo warns in his version of Cavafy's 'Ithaca' 'Don't translate it'. We can only be grateful that Boyle ignored this advice, to the immeasurable benefit of us all. -- Josephine Balmer * Modern Poetry in Translation *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Target group
US School Grade: From Third Grade to Eleventh Grade, Interest Age: From 13 to 21 years
Illustrations
Not illustrated
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 11 mm
Weight
240 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-84471-033-1 (9781844710331)
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
Eugenio Montejo was born in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1938. He is the author of numerous books of poetry: Elegos (1967), Muerte y memoria (1972), Algunas palabras (1976), Terredad (1979), Tropico absoluto (1982), Alfabeto del mundo (1986), Adios al siglo XX (1992), El azul de la tierra (1997), Partitura de la cigarra (1999) and Tiempo Transfigurado (2001). He has also published two collections of essays: La ventana oblicua and El taller blanco. In 1998 Eugenio Montejo received Venezuela's National Prize for Literature. He died in 2008.
Peter Boyle is an Australian poet. His four collections of poetry are Coming home from the world (1994), The Blue Cloud of Crying (1997), What the painter saw in our faces (2001), and Museum of Space (2004). A selection of his translations of Cesar Vallejo, I am going to speak of hope, was published by the Peruvian Consulate, Sydney in 1999. He lives in Sydney where he works as a teacher.
Miguel Gomes is Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Connecticut-Storrs. He is an essayist and a short-story writer.
Peter Boyle is an Australian poet. His four collections of poetry are Coming home from the world (1994), The Blue Cloud of Crying (1997), What the painter saw in our faces (2001), and Museum of Space (2004). A selection of his translations of Cesar Vallejo, I am going to speak of hope, was published by the Peruvian Consulate, Sydney in 1999. He lives in Sydney where he works as a teacher.
Miguel Gomes is Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Connecticut-Storrs. He is an essayist and a short-story writer.
Content
Acknowledgments
Eugenio Montejo's Earthdom
Notes
Translator's Preface
The Trees: Selected Poems (1967-2004)
Los Arboles
The Trees
Islandia
Iceland
Gueiguee 1918
Gueiguee 1918
El Canto del Gallo
The Rooster's Song
La Estatua de Pessoa
The Statue of Pessoa
Sobremesa
Talking Across the Table
Itaca
Ithaca
La Terredad de un Pajaro
The Earthdom of a Bird
Caracas
Caracas
Mis Mayores
My Ancestors
Mi Amor
My Love
Orfeo
Orpheus
Caballo Real
The King's Horse
Partida
Departure
Album de Familia
Family Album
Dos Rembrandt
Two Rembrandts
Hotel Antiguo
Old Hotel
Setiembre
September
Mare Nostrum
Mare Nostrum
Lisboa
Lisbon
El Otro
The Other
Terredad
Earthdom
Amantes
Lovers
La Tierra Giro para Acercarnos
The Earth Turned to Bring Us Closer
La Arana Veloz
The Nimble Spider
En el Cafe
In the Cafe
El Rezagado
Left Behind
La Poesia
Poetry
El Buey
The Ox
La Mesa
Table
Mural Escrito por el Viento
Mural Written by the Wind
Un Canto para el Tordo
A Song for the Blackbird
Despertar
Waking Up
La Casa
The House
Tiempo Transfigurado
Transfigured Time
Manoa
Manoa
Cancion
Song
La Vida
Life
Vecindad
Closeness
Algunas Palabras
A Few Words
Adios al Siglo XX
Farewell to the Twentieth Century
Elegia a la Muerte de mi Hermano Ricardo
Elegy for the Death of my Brother Ricardo
El Inocente
The Simple Minded One
Nana para Emilio
Lullaby for Emilio
Al Fin de Todo
At the End of Everything
Noches de Trasatlantico
Nights on the Transatlantic
Palabras de Boyero
The Ox Driver's Words
La Hora de Hamlet
Hamlet's Hour
Un Tordo
A Thrush
Adios a mi Padre
Saying Goodbye to my Father
Final de Lluvia
End of the Rain
Medianoche
Midnight
Los Ausentes
The Absent Ones
Al Retorno
Coming Back
Canto Lacrado
Hidden Song
Opus Numero Cero
Opus Number Zero
Una Fotografia de 1948
A Photograph from 1948
Partitura de la Cigarra
The Cicada's Score
Selected Prose Writings
The White Workshop
Fragments
Notes to the Poems
Eugenio Montejo's Earthdom
Notes
Translator's Preface
The Trees: Selected Poems (1967-2004)
Los Arboles
The Trees
Islandia
Iceland
Gueiguee 1918
Gueiguee 1918
El Canto del Gallo
The Rooster's Song
La Estatua de Pessoa
The Statue of Pessoa
Sobremesa
Talking Across the Table
Itaca
Ithaca
La Terredad de un Pajaro
The Earthdom of a Bird
Caracas
Caracas
Mis Mayores
My Ancestors
Mi Amor
My Love
Orfeo
Orpheus
Caballo Real
The King's Horse
Partida
Departure
Album de Familia
Family Album
Dos Rembrandt
Two Rembrandts
Hotel Antiguo
Old Hotel
Setiembre
September
Mare Nostrum
Mare Nostrum
Lisboa
Lisbon
El Otro
The Other
Terredad
Earthdom
Amantes
Lovers
La Tierra Giro para Acercarnos
The Earth Turned to Bring Us Closer
La Arana Veloz
The Nimble Spider
En el Cafe
In the Cafe
El Rezagado
Left Behind
La Poesia
Poetry
El Buey
The Ox
La Mesa
Table
Mural Escrito por el Viento
Mural Written by the Wind
Un Canto para el Tordo
A Song for the Blackbird
Despertar
Waking Up
La Casa
The House
Tiempo Transfigurado
Transfigured Time
Manoa
Manoa
Cancion
Song
La Vida
Life
Vecindad
Closeness
Algunas Palabras
A Few Words
Adios al Siglo XX
Farewell to the Twentieth Century
Elegia a la Muerte de mi Hermano Ricardo
Elegy for the Death of my Brother Ricardo
El Inocente
The Simple Minded One
Nana para Emilio
Lullaby for Emilio
Al Fin de Todo
At the End of Everything
Noches de Trasatlantico
Nights on the Transatlantic
Palabras de Boyero
The Ox Driver's Words
La Hora de Hamlet
Hamlet's Hour
Un Tordo
A Thrush
Adios a mi Padre
Saying Goodbye to my Father
Final de Lluvia
End of the Rain
Medianoche
Midnight
Los Ausentes
The Absent Ones
Al Retorno
Coming Back
Canto Lacrado
Hidden Song
Opus Numero Cero
Opus Number Zero
Una Fotografia de 1948
A Photograph from 1948
Partitura de la Cigarra
The Cicada's Score
Selected Prose Writings
The White Workshop
Fragments
Notes to the Poems