Between Day and Night: New and Selected Poems, 1946-2010 Miguel Gonzalez-Gerth

by David Colon

Overview

Miguel González-Gerth, an esteemed translator, poet, editor, and professor emeritus at the University of Texas at Austin, has been publishing his original English and Spanish poetry since 1946. Born in Mexico City in 1926, González-Gerth moved to the United States in 1940 and made it his permanent home. He received his B.A. from the University of Texas in 1950 and a PhD from Princeton in 1973, and taught at UT for over thirty years.

Editor David Colón has compiled a selection of González-Gerth’s poems that demonstrate the range of interests, themes, and styles that span more than a century of a life dedicated to Hispanic literature studies. The poems in this collection are arranged chronologically, exhibiting “the different phases of a poet’s life as well as different historical moments and literary traditions.”

Many of the poems appear with side-by-side translation, demonstrating not only the creativity born of a unique cultural perspective, but the profound understanding and commitment to the process of translation, taking a poem through its original written language, rethinking the words, allusions, connotations, and presenting it in a different language and tradition.

“He has two guiding principles as a translator of poetry: to keep the languages distinct, and to approach the act of reproduction as an art form itself. In the end, the translation must work on the terms of its own language. It is more important for it to be a successful poem than a faithful copy,” writes Colón in the introduction. Between Day and Night provides a record of González-Gerth’s achievement as a poet and translator, a writer who stays true to the languages and poetic styles of Latin America and Anglo-America, and “work[s] with essentially two minds.”

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780875655499
Publisher:	TCU Press
Publication date:	08/02/2013
Pages:	120
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

DAVID COLON is an assistant professor of English and Latino Studies at TCU in Fort Worth, Texas. Colon, a Brooklyn native, received his PhD in English from Stanford University and was a chancellor’s postdoctoral fellow in English at the University of California, Berkeley. His writing has appeared in various esteemed journals and he has recently published his first book entitled The Lost Men, An Allegory (Elsewhen Press, 2012).

Table of Contents

Foreword ix

Acknowledgments xiii

Introduction xiv

Editor's Note xxxix

Early Poems (1946-1953)

Aquarelle: The Calendar in Verse (1946) 2

To Spring 7

Blue Hour 9

Elegy to Federico García Lorca 10

Elegía a Federico García Lorca 12

Alexandrine Sonnet 14

Gentle Affirmation 15

Tierschicksale 16

Destino animal 18

From Desert Sequence and Other Poems (1956)

Desert Sequence 22

Dark Fisherman 24

Pescador oscuro 25

Angelus 26

Angelus 27

The Abacus of Time 28

El áhaco del tietnpo 29

From La ausencia infinita/The Infinite Absence (1964, 1984)

The Technique of Bitterness 32

La técnica de la armargura 33

Glances 34

Las miradas 35

Story 36

Cuento 37

Chamber Music 38

Música de cámara 39

Blindness 40

Ceguedad 41

Wings Over the Sunrise 42

Alas sobre el alba 43

Your Name 44

Tu nombie 45

The Night Weavers 46

Los tejedores de la noche 47

A Dream 48

Sueño 49

The Infinite Absence 50

La ausencia inftnita 51

From The Musicians and Other Poems (1991)

Pregnant Girl With Dogs 54

Destination Gotham 55

Soliloquy With Echoes 56

The Country Nurse 57

In Memoriam: Miss K. W. 58

Rejoinders 59

Involution 60

Solstitial Birthday Celebration 61

In Question to Your Answer 62

Figures of Earth 63

Two Paintings by Franz Marc 64

Dos cuadros de Franz Marc 65

Black on White 66

Art of Poetry 67

Lindbergh 68

Horowitz 69

Singers and Sinners 70

Moonscape 71

The Musicians 72

From Poems to Hazel (1994)

To Hazel Harrod Ransom 74

Sic Transit 75

The Space of Night 77

Espacio de la noche 87

Dance of the White Lady 96

From The Brandywine in Winter and Other Poems (2004)

The Brandywine in Winter 100

Familiar Stranger 102

Wild Surmise 103

Ashes of the Dead 104

Life's Dictionary 106

The Other Side of the Map 107

El otro lado del mapa 109

Looking for the Horse Latitudes 111

En busca de las calmas ecuatoriales 113

Giovinezza 115

Giovinezza 117

Awakening 119

Time to Remember 122

New England 123

Thinking of Ezra 124

Two for Stevens 125

Larkining 127

From Looking for the Horse Latitudes (2007)

Shipwreck 130

Naufragio 131

To Sappho: Three Dream Memories 133

A Safo: Tres recuerdos oníricos 140

Love Poem 147

Poema de amor 148

Recent Poems (2001-2010)

Three Poems for Nena 150

The Edge of Things 153

The Fractured Tongue 155

La lengua fracturada 156

Inquiry 157

En el inter(rogante) 159

Dead Letter 161

Poste restante 163

Memorandum 165

Memorial 166

Words and Questions 167

Palabras y preguntas 168

The Written Word 169

Escritura 171

Second Thought 173

Secrets 174

Secretos 177

Tabula Rasa 180

Tabula rasa 181

Interview with Miguel González-Gerth 182

Interviews

 Fort Worth, TX