Reversible Monuments: Contemporary Mexican Poetry

Not since 1959 when Octavio Paz and Samuel Beckett published An Anthology of Mexican Poetry, has there been a collection which so thoroughly examines the poetry of the country known for being "too far from God and too close to the United States." Yet, as Elliott Weinberger writes in his introduction,

"Americans know everything about God, but next to nothing about Mexico—few know that Mexico-particularly when compared to the United States-is a kind of paradise for poets."

Reversible Monuments introduces this "paradise" to American readers. It includes major international writers like Alberto Blanco, Pura Lopez Colome, and David Huerta, as well as exciting younger poets, and poets whose work, while well-known in the Spanish-speaking world has not yet seen publication in English. The twenty-five poets represented are as diverse as their American counterparts: They are urban, educated, younger, well travelled, aware of their literary heritage, and include Buddhists, feminists, Jewish poets, experimental poets, darkly brooding poets, and playfully entertaining poets.

Until the Poem Remains

by Francisco Hernandez

Strip away all the flesh
until the poem remains
with the sonorous darkness of bone.
And smooth the bone, polish it, sharpen it
until it becomes such a fine needle,
that it pierces the tongue without pain
though blood chokes the throat.

Reversible Monuments includes a healthy bilingual selection by each poet, features an introduction by Elliott Weinberger, and gathers the work of esteemed translators alongside that of younger translators. It also includes biographies of the poets, notes on the poetry, and an extensive bibliography of contemporary Mexican poetry.

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Reversible Monuments: Contemporary Mexican Poetry

Not since 1959 when Octavio Paz and Samuel Beckett published An Anthology of Mexican Poetry, has there been a collection which so thoroughly examines the poetry of the country known for being "too far from God and too close to the United States." Yet, as Elliott Weinberger writes in his introduction,

"Americans know everything about God, but next to nothing about Mexico—few know that Mexico-particularly when compared to the United States-is a kind of paradise for poets."

Reversible Monuments introduces this "paradise" to American readers. It includes major international writers like Alberto Blanco, Pura Lopez Colome, and David Huerta, as well as exciting younger poets, and poets whose work, while well-known in the Spanish-speaking world has not yet seen publication in English. The twenty-five poets represented are as diverse as their American counterparts: They are urban, educated, younger, well travelled, aware of their literary heritage, and include Buddhists, feminists, Jewish poets, experimental poets, darkly brooding poets, and playfully entertaining poets.

Until the Poem Remains

by Francisco Hernandez

Strip away all the flesh
until the poem remains
with the sonorous darkness of bone.
And smooth the bone, polish it, sharpen it
until it becomes such a fine needle,
that it pierces the tongue without pain
though blood chokes the throat.

Reversible Monuments includes a healthy bilingual selection by each poet, features an introduction by Elliott Weinberger, and gathers the work of esteemed translators alongside that of younger translators. It also includes biographies of the poets, notes on the poetry, and an extensive bibliography of contemporary Mexican poetry.

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Reversible Monuments: Contemporary Mexican Poetry

Reversible Monuments: Contemporary Mexican Poetry

Reversible Monuments: Contemporary Mexican Poetry

Reversible Monuments: Contemporary Mexican Poetry

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Overview

Not since 1959 when Octavio Paz and Samuel Beckett published An Anthology of Mexican Poetry, has there been a collection which so thoroughly examines the poetry of the country known for being "too far from God and too close to the United States." Yet, as Elliott Weinberger writes in his introduction,

"Americans know everything about God, but next to nothing about Mexico—few know that Mexico-particularly when compared to the United States-is a kind of paradise for poets."

Reversible Monuments introduces this "paradise" to American readers. It includes major international writers like Alberto Blanco, Pura Lopez Colome, and David Huerta, as well as exciting younger poets, and poets whose work, while well-known in the Spanish-speaking world has not yet seen publication in English. The twenty-five poets represented are as diverse as their American counterparts: They are urban, educated, younger, well travelled, aware of their literary heritage, and include Buddhists, feminists, Jewish poets, experimental poets, darkly brooding poets, and playfully entertaining poets.

Until the Poem Remains

by Francisco Hernandez

Strip away all the flesh
until the poem remains
with the sonorous darkness of bone.
And smooth the bone, polish it, sharpen it
until it becomes such a fine needle,
that it pierces the tongue without pain
though blood chokes the throat.

Reversible Monuments includes a healthy bilingual selection by each poet, features an introduction by Elliott Weinberger, and gathers the work of esteemed translators alongside that of younger translators. It also includes biographies of the poets, notes on the poetry, and an extensive bibliography of contemporary Mexican poetry.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781619321007
Publisher: Copper Canyon Press
Publication date: 08/19/2013
Series: A Kagean Book
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 520
File size: 1 MB
Language: Spanish

Read an Excerpt

"Now that we're nothing, for example"

Now that we're nothing, for example,
we can be the rain. Certainly
the rain welcomes us with no hesitation, even
when it begins. And now it begins. Drops
on the windowpane: it welcomes us,
this item the rain. Kiss me.
Frailty, weave a thread around the bird's wee foot,
neighborly conclusion of the rain or finish, weave as much.
A kind of box with "Fragile" written
in agile hand, no trembling inside. Let us be fragile
now that we're not the ocean. A form welcomes us.

Eduardo Milán, translated by Roberto Tejada
from Reversible Monuments: Contemporary Mexican Poetry

Table of Contents

Preface3
Introduction7
Maria Baranda
Epistle of the Shipwreck17
The weddings of flowers take place upon the stigma. Pollen unfastens when aurora begins, and in a moment life redeems itself and then withdraws29
With only two or three stamens, masculine flowers burst. They rise from their own depths, glistening and moist. Loosely turning over, they bring themselves up under the sky midway between light and shadow. Voiceless they wilt, sluggish they die31
Ecstasy33
Efrain Bartolome
Tattoos in the Water39
Intermezzo with Five Crocodiles45
The Ill-fated Water47
Alberto Blanco
Theory of Light53
Quantum Theory55
Set Theory57
Theory of Fractals59
The Accuracy of the Scale59
Metamorphosis of a Chair69
Three States and Three Kingdoms73
Maps75
Carmen Boullosa
Elysian Garden83
Coral Bracho
In This Warm Dark Mosque109
Fish of Fleeting Skin113
From This Light119
A Stone in the Water of Sanity121
Upon It They Gently Reflect123
The Hypothetical Spectator123
Stone in the Sand127
The Mysteries of Touch127
The Allure of Forms129
Buffalo Conde
Flower of Gold131
Time for Trees to Dance131
Give Away the Lie133
Elsa Cross
Monsoon135
Ivy137
Mandap139
Seva143
Fabulation145
Banyan147
Pavilion147
Words149
Form151
Epiphany151
Balancing Act153
Shakti153
Alfonso D'Aquino
Hotel159
Amorous161
The Wedding163
Metempsychosis of the Dog165
"The sun opens its lips and says to us"167
The Opened Orange of Light167
Brief Viper179
Antonio Deltoro
Cartography191
Eggs Laid by a Tiger193
Sunday195
Anesthesia195
Voyage197
Pillows199
Contemporaries199
Secondhand Book201
Neighbors201
The Shy Ones203
Gerardo Deniz
Muse207
Meditate209
Ignorance209
The Authoritarian School and How a Respectable Literary Genre Was Born211
Auditor213
Christmas215
Childish217
Classified Ads217
Merlin219
Ark219
Map221
Act221
Oedipus to the Third Power223
Superior227
Jorge Fernandez Granados
Minimal Ulysses229
The Perfumist233
Specters237
The Promised Land241
Account of the Marvels Whispered in a Mannequin's Ear243
Malva Flores
Nomad House (excerpts)251
Turbid Diction (excerpts)261
Gloria Gervitz
Migrations (excerpt)263
Francisco Hernandez
On How Robert Schumann Was Defeated by Demons281
Claudia Hernandez de Valle-Arizpe
Hemicranea (excerpts)305
David Huerta
Thirteen Propositions against Trivial Love317
Machinery323
Prayer for August 21325
Pathological Beings329
Bolero at Armageddon329
Summer Mist331
The Cauldron331
Cancellation of a Construction Project335
Descent335
A Baroque Cell337
Light from Parallel Worlds339
Deck of Cards341
Pura Lopez Colome
Dramatis Personae343
Heartache345
The Cubs345
Death of the Kiss351
Tedi Lopez Mills
And Never Did...365
My Voice Faithful as a Shadow369
The Dead Weight of the Land371
An Ending by Pound373
On Reading Virgil375
Letter381
Advertisement387
Ernesto Lumbreras
"The sky" (1)391
Overflowing Willow393
Reunion of Cellos393
Good-for-nothings on a White Corner395
Keys of the Saint395
A Green Hill, a Green Hill397
The Horizon Burns397
Regression of the Willow397
Where to?401
"The sky" (11)403
Eduardo Milan
"I mean you as though referring to two furies because"413
"Rabbit-foot effectiveness, nonentity of"413
"Now that we're nothing, for example"415
"I believe in nothing, I collaborate, I assist"415
"Riddle me what marionettes are"417
"I let myself be led because I let loose"417
Five (excerpt)419
"We can't go on like this: be truthful, empty"421
"Do you care to remedy the faces of the gods?"423
"One's alone in this: making masks"423
"He sends word for them not to be in His place"425
"What chorus?"425
Fabio Morabito
Sponge429
Scissors433
Piazza Gimma439
"I do not wish, in spite of all"439
"I've forgotten the words"441
"Elephants are born old"443
"Maps are drawn on Sundays"445
"I've never been in love enough"449
"Compared to the condos of the living"451
Josue Ramirez
Tepozan457
Topography463
Mechanical Heart463
Of Fiction and Things473
Juan Gregorio Regino
Cantares479
Jose Luis Rivas
Red Tide501
Thalassa503
A Season of Paradise507
A Knack for Slipping Away517
River I519
Francisco Segovia
Evening Star527
Premonition531
Chrysalis531
There Where You Sleep...533
Promise535
We Never Come537
It Isn't Gentleness537
Vegetal Animus537
Clarity of Silence541
Pedro Serrano
Pool543
Bullfight543
Vertigo545
Rosary545
Inventory547
Ticklish Moments549
Boundary549
Flying553
Beacon553
Treadmill555
Victor Teran
It Was Early Evening559
In the Palm of My Hand561
Indecision561
Six Variations on Love563
It's Over565
Natalia Toledo
Na Tacha569
Zenaida569
Olga's House571
Temple571
Silly Ghost573
Na Aurea573
Marcelina575
Na Hermila Limon575
Cielo Min577
Revelation577
Agricola579
Bertha Beninu579
Na Victorica Litru581
Healers581
Natalia583
The Shadow That Draws the Light583
Manuel Ulacia
On the Beach585
Hampstead Heath585
Return to the City587
Conrail Wax Museum587
In the Steam Bath589
Aegean Sea589
Visit to Turk's Head Pub593
In the Ritz at Meknes595
Arabian Knight597
Tenochtitlan Blues599
Veronica Volkow
Arcana IV: The Emperor601
Arcana VIII: Justice603
Arcana X: Fortune605
Arcana XII: The Hanged Man605
The Story of the Labyrinth607
Wands609
The Valley of Zapata611
Heriberto Yepez
"Maniacs and Crazies"615
On Coahuila Street621
The Life of a Cucapa Woman625
On the "Unusual" Lifestyle of the Cucapa Indians as Recorded by R. W. Hardy, British Lieutenant, While Exploring the Gulf of California627
Juan Martinez, Juan Nobody, Juan All629
Spanish Versions of Indigenous-Language Poems637
About the Translators659
Index of English Titles667
Index of Spanish Titles671
Index of Indigenous Titles675
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