A powerful account of the symbolic murder of the poet's mother. From the first poem in this bilingual edition of The Men Who Killed My Mother, it is evident that the mother in "Our Mother" ("Nuestra Madre") is not only Fernando Valverde's. The soulful refrain of "mother/madre" might be anyone's mother whose suffering is palpable in a world legislated over by men. Issues such as orphanhood, abuse, violence, manipulation, and fear are treated with the rawness of someone who has tasted the venom of betrayal. This is a lyrical dark garden of faith and family, exposing treachery and cruelty, and anger at injustice, from the voice of a son with deep love for his mother-for her honor, dignity, and dreams. Valverde leads us into a forest full of wolves and serpents under the governance of civil society. He has received many awards for his poetry and is recognized as one of the most highly acclaimed poets of his generation in Spain. This heartfelt English translation by Gordon E. McNeer captures the power of Valverde's poetic cadences and its haunting evocative lyricism.
Rafael Alberti's collection of poems set in vibrant Rome, his home in exile from Spain. After his long exile in France and Argentina following the Spanish Civil War, Rafael Alberti's final home in exile was Rome, where he wrote Roma: Peligro para caminantes (Rome: Pedestrians Beware). There, Romulus and Remus sneak down to the Tiber to suckle on feral cats, a jack of all trades pisses on the poet's shoes, whistling as he walks away, and in the Campo de' Fiori the poet compares sonnets with the wandering spirit of Giuseppe Gioachino Belli, all in the shadow of the glory of Rome's imperial ruins. Two suites of sonnets open and close the book, while in between, Alberti displays masterful poems in metered and free verse, rhyming couplets, and a numbered series of short poems. The blending of classical tradition with post-modern echoes the darkness and luminosity that exist within the poems, tinged with longing, nostalgia, love, as well as hope. In the end, the Eternal City is a refuge for Alberti: "I left for you all that I once held dear. / Oh Rome, my sorrow pleads, hold out your hands / and give me everything I left for you." This unique trilingual edition features exquisite and nuanced translations in English and Italian from the original Spanish by Anthony Geist and Giuseppe Leporace alongside visually evocative photographs of Rome by Adam Weintraub. Readers will want to take this poetic walk in Rome since what sometimes elicits caution, an aspect of danger, also becomes a destination for discovery.
"An English translation of Daniel Cordier's epic portrait and memoir of the French Resistance during WWII. Daniel Cordier's fascinating, intimate memoir is a major contribution to our understanding of the fraught and historic relations between General Charles de Gaulle's Free French and the fractious resistance movements under the Occupation during World War II. As the first young secretary to legendary Jean Moulin, one of the leaders of Conseil National de la Râesistance, Cordier recounts Moulin's tense negotiations to bring together the resistance movements and persuade them to join forces under de Gaulle's banner between 1942 and '43. Cordier was a lookout on the fateful day the National Resistance Council was created, confirming de Gaulle's legitimacy in the eyes of the French people and, crucially, in the eyes of Roosevelt and the Allied leadership. Later in life, Cordier penned his first-hand account of his role in the creation of Jean Moulin's secretariat in Lyon and then Paris. Alias Caracalla is a brave and passionate story of action and self-discovery in times of war, with a sensitive and nuanced translation by Rupert Swyer"--
"A mother and son's fictional journey to escape the Armenian Genocide and start anew. Like any other fifteen-year-old boy, Aram might never have written the events of his still young life, except that he found himself suddenly plunged into exile, fleeing certain death. In 1915, the Ottoman authorities undertook the wholesale extermination of the Armenian people; hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children like Aram suffered one of the twentieth century's most savage persecutions. Inspired by the plight of the murdered modernist poet Daniel Varoujan (1884-1915), this novel follows Aram and his widowed mother on their flight toward a new life on - and under - the sea. From recollections of his father's meditations on Homer to a life-changing apprenticeship as a coral fisherman off the coasts of Cataluäna and Marseille, Aram's tale dives into a future that might help redeem a harrowing past. Aram's Notebook examines the Armenian Genocide through a narrative in which poets and poetry loom large. Aram's tale evokes a struggle not simply for physical survival, but for saving memory from the clutches of destruction"--
"For years, Federico Garcâia Lorca's lecture on duende has been a source of insight for writers and performers, including Ted Hughes, Nick Cave, Patti Smith, and Amanda Gorman. Duende: Play and Theory not only provides a path into Lorca's poetics and the arts of Spain; it is one of the strangest, most compelling accounts of inspiration ever offered by a poet. Contrasting the demon called duende with the Angel and the Muse, Lorca describes a mysterious telluric, diabolical current, an irreducible "it," that can draw the best from both performer and audience. This new translation by Christopher Maurer, based on a thoroughly revised edition of the Spanish original of 1933, also included in this volume, offers a more accurate and fully annotated version of the lecture, with an introduction by eminent philologist Josâe Javier Leâon. Drawing on a deep knowledge of flamenco, and correcting decades of discussion about duende and its supposed origins in Spanish folklore and popular speech, Leâon shows to what extent the concept of duende - understood as the imp of artistic inspiration - was the playful, yet deadly serious, invention of Lorca himself. Lorca's bravura performance of duende is foreshadowed here with a bilingual version - the most complete ever - of his other major text on inspiration, "Imagination, Inspiration, Evasion," in which he calls for greater freedom in poetry as if searching for duende and its "constant baptism of newly created things.""--
"Set during the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), Celia in the Revolution is the last in a series of young adult novels written by Encarnaciâon Aragoneses, known by the pen name Elena Fortâun, one of the most prolific and popular Spanish authors of the mid-twentieth century. In a series of more than twenty novels, Fortâun's protagonist is Celia Gâalvez de Montalbâan, a precocious and rebellious girl from an affluent family who's not afraid to question authority and dream, and that often gets her into trouble. Readers watch her grow from age seven through adolescence to the threshold of womanhood at seventeen, which is her age in this dark, inspiring novel about the war that changed Spain. In this last narrative in the legendary series, Celia has an awakening that not even her lively imagination could have anticipated. The once carefree, innocent child prone to playful fantasies must suddenly confront a world that's utterly changed, finding herself amid a bloody conflict, la Guerra Civil. Celia, now a madrecita, a little mother to her two younger sisters since the death of their mother, is forced into a life of hardship, a world of hunger, witness to violence, executions, bombing raids, and death. With Celia's sorrows come her courageous and profound compassion, consoling and caring for virtually every war victim that crosses her path, no matter their political inclinations, and no matter all that Celia must contend with herself. Celia, despite all her travails, manages to survive with determination, defiance, and dignity. Written immediately after the war, Celia in the Revolution was not published during Elena Fortâun's lifetime, until after the death of the dictator, Francisco Franco, due to censorship. This first major English translation by eminent scholar and Hispanist Michael Ugarte captures the narrative and nuances of Celia's voice and others in this character-rich novel, and fellow eminent scholar and Hispanist Nuria Capdevila-Arguèelles's preface brings powerful insights into this remarkable work by Elena Fortâun that transcends young adult literature"--
"A lyrical novel following an idealistic student who explores the power of literature in Franco's Spain. It's the summer of 1963 and Leâon Egea, a cocky nineteen-year-old student and aspiring author, has just finished his first year studying literature at the University of Granada and is starting a summer job as an encyclopedia salesman. Leâon, infuriated by the injustices in Spanish society under the Franco dictatorship, comes to find that literature can speak the truth when the reality is clouded. In this coming-of-age novel by renowned Spanish writer Luis Garcâia Montero, Leâon discovers that, under the repressive Franco dictatorship, people, places, and events are not always what they seem. But literature, words, and names open paths to discovery, both personal and political. Through lyrical fast-paced narrative, Someone Speaks Your Name explores literature as a foundation for understanding human relationships, national character, discrete differences between right and wrong, and for pursuing the path forward. As Leâon's professor tells him: "Learning to write is learning to see.""--
A cherished erotic play by Federico GarcÃa Lorca, illustrated by a major Spanish artist.  Painting, poetry, and music come together in Zóbel Reads Lorca, as Fernando Zóbel, a Harvard student who would become one of Spainâ¿s most famous painters, translates and illustrates Federico GarcÃa Lorcaâ¿s haunting play about the wounds of love.  The premiere of Amor de Don PerlimplÃn con Belisa en su jardÃn, an âerotic allelujiaâ? which Lorca once called his most cherished play, was shut down in 1928 by Spanish government censors who confiscated the manuscript and locked it away in the pornography section of a state archive. Lorca rewrote the work in New York, and an amateur theater group brought it to the Spanish stage a few years later. Since his death, the play has also been transformed into ballet and opera.  Zóbel Reads Lorca presents Zóbelâ¿s previously unpublished translation and features contextual essays from several scholars. Art historian Felipe Pereda studies Lorca in the context of Zóbelâ¿s development as a painter, Luis Fernández Cifuentes describes the precarious and much-debated state of the humanities in Zóbelâ¿s Harvard and throughout the United States in the 1940s, and Christopher Maurer delves into musical and visual aspects of the playâ¿s American productions. Â
Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel (1900-83), known for his surrealist themes and unflinching social criticism, was an artist defined by intellectual ambition and controversy. An exile who produced some of his most famous work in Mexico and France during Franco's dictatorship, he left a complicated imprint on the creative landscape of the twentieth century and on generations of younger filmmakers--including his Mexican friend Claudio Isaac. Drawn from Isaac's personal papers, Midday with Buñuel: Memories and Sketches, 1973-1983 is an intimate and unconventional portrait of this cinematic icon--and memoir of Isaac's own artistic development.The text includes sketches, vignettes, and anecdotes from Isaac's notebooks, revealing his perspective first as a precocious boy and then as a young man. Isaac reflects on Buñuel's presence among a community of exiles, artists, actors, writers, and intellectuals in Mexico City. These are at once touching, perceptive, and critical glimpses into Buñuel's roles as husband and father, friend and colleague, surrealist, philosopher, and iconoclast during his last years. Throughout, Isaac's words reveal his deep admiration and affection for an older friend full of contradictions. Intimate photographs from the Isaac family archive complement the writing, and Bryan Thomas Scoular's careful translation makes this text available for the first time in English.Part biography, part memoir, Midday with Buñuel brings to life the creative milieu of Mexico City and gives readers a privileged view of the relationship between these two filmmakers.
"One day you're going to ask me, 'Mama, do you remember that trip to Salto?' and I don't want such questions to go unanswered." What happens on that trip to Salto opens this moving narrative by Uruguayan writer and poet Circe Maia. It begins with a mother and her young daughter desperately trying to catch an overnight train to Salto that they hope carries their husband and father, a physician and political prisoner who is traveling to the Salto prison accompanied by military guards after being interrogated in Montevideo. Their ensuing trip reveals the effects of a totalitarian regime on families and social relationships. The tale of their journey is followed by a series of diary entries written by the mother between 1972 and 1974. The diary complements the opening account as each entry sensitively chronicles the family's struggle to cope with daily life under prolonged separation, fear, and uncertainty. The diarist questions how one's sense of community and love for country change when basic human rights can no longer be taken for granted. Presented here in a bilingual edition, "A Trip to Salto" ultimately provides an intimate glimpse into Uruguayan history while it explores the deeper truths about an individual's capacity to resist, adapt, and hope.
"A novel that tells the story of a Jewish family in World War II and reaches deep into Jewish history. Born in Brittany on the threshold of World War II, novelist Micháele Sarde had long been silent about her origins. After her mother, Jenny, finally shared their family history, Sarde decided to reconstruct Jenny's journey, including her exile from Salonica, move to Paris in 1921, and assimilation in France. The Nazi occupation then forced her and her family to hide and conceal their Jewish identity, and in this retelling, Sarde shows how Jenny fights with everything she has to survive the Holocaust and protect her daughter. Returning from Silence is a powerful saga that reaches deep into Jewish history, opening with the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 and their settlement in a more tolerant Ottoman Empire. Sephardi culture and language flourished in Salonica for four centuries, but with the fall of the Ottoman Empire in the 1920s, and the sense of troubling times to come, Jenny's family felt impelled to leave their much-loved city and rebuild their lives in France. Their years in France led to change that none could have fully expected, and then, the Holocaust. The trauma lasts well into the post-war period, silencing both mother and daughter in unanticipated ways. Through this family history, Sarde sensitively raises questions about identity, migration, and assimilation while weaving fiction together with history, research, and testimony to bring the characters' stories to life"--
"New translations of poems by prominent Peruvian poet Carlos Germâan Belli. This selection of poems by internationally renowned Peruvian poet Carlos Germâan Belli tempers a dark, ironic vision of worldly injustice with the "red midnight sun" of hope. Belli's contemplative verses express faith in language, in bodily joy, and in artistic form. These thirty-five poems explore public and domestic spaces of confinement and freedom, from paralysis to the ease of a bird in its "azure cloister." Translations from the original Spanish by Karl Maurer retain Belli's original meter, follow his complex syntax, and meet the challenges of his poetic language, which ranges from colloquial Peruvian slang to the ironic use of seventeenth-century Spanish. This bilingual edition also includes notes and reflections on Belli and on the art of translation. Beyond introducing American readers to a major presence in world poetry, The Azure Cloister offers a fresh approach to the translation of contemporary verse in Spanish"--
Les Misrables and Victor Hugos Vision for Leading Lives of Conscience. A look at Victor Hugos masterpiece alongside reflections from famous actors, such as Hugh Jackman, who have had the opportunity to portray Jean Valjean.
"Emma Dante's passionate and brutal plays stem from a need to confront important familial and societal realities in contemporary southern Italy. Her twenty-first century tales challenge stereotypes of the country and stage acts of resistance against the social, political, and economic conditions of Sicily. The seven works in this anthology paint a complex image of the peninsula through stories of disenfranchisement, misogyny, deep-set bigotry, and religious hypocrisy that reveal economic disparities between the north and south of the country, oppressive gender relations, and deep rooted mafioso-like attitudes. Dante's lyrical and visceral storytelling oscillates between the humorous and the tragic aspects of everyday life, undertaking an irreverent subversion of the status quo with its extreme physicality and unsettling imagery. This exquisite first English translation of Emma Dante's work enables English-speaking readers, theatre scholars, and directors alike to encounter character-driven "civic theatre" with its portraits of individuals existing at the fringes of Italy. Ultimately, it allows us to "listen" to those who are not given a voice anywhere else. Close"--
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