Night Journey

by María Negroni, Anne Twitty

Overview

One of South America's most celebrated contemporary poets takes us on a fantastic voyage to mysterious lands and seas, into the psyche, and to the heart of the poem itself. Night Journey is the English-language debut of the work that won María Negroni an Argentine National Book Award. It is a book of dreams—dreams she renders with surreal beauty that recalls the work of her compatriot Alejandra Pizarnik, with the penetrating subtlety of Borges and Calvino.


In sixty-two tightly woven prose poems, Negroni deftly infuses haunting imagery with an ironic, personal spirituality. Effortlessly she navigates the nameless subject to the slopes of the Himalayas, to a bar in Buenos Aires, through war, from icy Scandinavian landscapes to the tropics, across seas, toward a cemetery in the wake of Napoleon's hearse, by train, by taxis headed in unrequested directions, past mirrors and birds, between life and death.



Night Journey reflects a mastery of a traditional form while brilliantly expressing a modern condition: the multicultural, multifaceted individual, ever in motion. Displacement abounds: a "medieval tabard" where a pelvis should be, a "lipless grin," a "beach severed from the ocean." In one poem "nomadic cities" whisk past. In another, smiling cockroaches loom in a visiting mother's eyes.


Anne Twitty, whose elegant translations are accompanied by the Spanish originals, remarks in her preface that the book's "indomitable literary intelligence" subdues an unspoken terror—helplessness. Yet, as observed by the angel Gabriel, the consoling voice of wisdom, only by accepting the journey for what it is can one discover its "hidden splendor," the "invisible center of the poem." As readers of this magnificent work will discover, this is a journey that, because its every fleeting image conjures a thousand words of fertile silence, can be savored again and again.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691090986
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	02/17/2002
Series:	The Lockert Library of Poetry in Translation , #50
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

María Negroni was born in Argentina in 1951. Recipient of the 2000-2001 Octavio Paz Fellowship for Poetry, she has published a novel, two books of essays, and six books of poetry in her native Spanish, one of which has previously appeared in bilingual editions in the United States. Night Journey is the English-language debut of El viaje de la noche (1994), which received an Argentine National Book Award in 1997. Her translations from French and English have been widely published. She teaches Latin American Poetry at Sarah Lawrence College. Anne Twitty has translated books and numerous shorter works into English by Negroni, the Cuban poet Magali Alabau, and others. She was formerly editor of the Epicycle section of Parabola, in which she published essays on myth, creation, and memory.

Table of Contents

ix Kidnapped by the Inexorable - TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION
2Esqueletos bajo el cielo - 3 Skeletons under the Sky
4La jaula en flor - 5 Cage in Bloom
6Catástrofe - 7 Catastrophe
8Ecuyère y militar - 9 Equestrienne and Officer
10Los bosques de marmol - 11 The Marble Forests
12La pérdida - 13 Loss
14Gabriel - 15 Gabriel
16Heráldica - 17 Heraldry
18Van Gogh - 19 Van Gogh
20The Great Watcher - 21 The Great Watcher
22El espejo del alma - 23 Mirror of the Soul
24La ciudad nómade - 25 Nomadic City
26El padre - 27 The Father
28Diálogo con Gabriel I - 29 Dialogue with Gabriel I
30Lido - 31 Lido
32La visita - 33 The Visit
34La guía telefónica - 35 The Telephone Book
36El mapa del Tiempo - 37 The Map of Time
38Napoleón II - 39 Napoleon II
40Los amantes - 41 The Lovers
42Los ojos de Dios - 43 The Eyes of God
44El caballo blanco - 45 The White Horse
46El bebé - 47 The Baby
48Las tres madonas - 49 The Three Madonnas
50Tout cherche tout - 51 Tout cherche tout
52Carta a Sèvres - 53 Letter to Sèvres
54El diccionario infinito - 55 The Infinite Dictionary
56Las ventanas del siglo - 57 Windows on the Century
58Diálogo con Gabriel II - 59 Dialogue with Gabriel II
60Los dos cielos - 61 The Two Heavens
62Fata Morgana - 63 Fata Morgana
64New Jersey - 65 New Jersey
66Rosamundi - 67 Rosamundi
68Encrucijada - 69 Crossroads
70La ceguera - 71 Blindness
72Midgard - 73 Midgard
74La ropa - 75 Clothes
76El diluvio - 77 The Deluge
78Sleeping Beauty - 79 Sleeping Beauty
80El viaje - 81 The Journey
82Die Zeit - 83 Die Zeit
84Diálogo con Gabriel III - 85 Dialogue with Gabriel III
86Teoría de la luz - 87 Theory of Light
88Los hilos del ser - 89 Threads of Being
90Over Exposure - 91 Over Exposure
92Eternidad - 93 Eternity
94Los osos - 95 The Bears
96El mundo no termina - 97 The World Doesn't End
98Cuento de hadas - 99 Fairytale
100 Terra Incognita - 101 Terra Incognita
102Peridural y despojo - 103 Epidural and Plunder
104Hieros gamos - 105 Hieros gamos
106Diálogo con Gabriel IV - 107 Dialogue with Gabriel IV
108Simurgh - 109 Simurgh
110El libro de los seres - 111 The Book of Being
112El techo del mundo - 113 The Roof of the World
114El juego sin nombre - 115 The Anonymous Game
116Hurgãlyã, ciudad peregrina - 117 Hurgãlyã, Peregrine city
118Los cielos del otoño - 119 Autumn Skies
122Teoría del buen morir - 123 Theory of a Good Death
124Casandra - 125 Cassandra
126Carta a mí misma - 127 Letter to Myself

What People are Saying About This

Nicole Brossard

A mysterious configuration of presence and absence, Night Journey is an intricate symbolic mapping of identity. María Negroni has written a book in which each poem is an open window allowing us to observe the dangerous clash of unreality and reality. For as she writes: 'I began to name things, that is, to conceal them.' And so the reader enters the fascinating universe of a woman traveling amid and beyond fear, mirrors, and shadows. Night Journey: a book where existence is a daring language of dreams.
— Nicole Brossard, author of "Mauve Desert"

Richard Howard

Calvino's prose (as in Invisible Cities) is the only predecessor I can cite for María Negroni's sophisticated texts, and Anne Twitty's remarkable translations are quite as striking and idiomatic as William Weaver's celebrated versions of the Italian master. These prose poems have all the glamour of narrative fables and all the lyric density of odes. One reads through Night Journey with the rare certainty that this is literature, a sequence of passionate, sorrowing renunciations; and the singular elegance of the utterance, in English as in Spanish, brings these illuminations precisely to the level where Rimbaud had left that word.

Jorge Monteleone

In El viaje de la noche, a sense of the uncanny is presented with a precise eloquence that preserves its hermetic nature. . . . Here we have an exceptional book, one that transforms its dark, serene, and fearsome music into a desire to read and reread.
— Jorge Monteleone, "Pagina/12", Buenos Aires

From the Publisher

"A mysterious configuration of presence and absence, Night Journey is an intricate symbolic mapping of identity. María Negroni has written a book in which each poem is an open window allowing us to observe the dangerous clash of unreality and reality. For as she writes: 'I began to name things, that is, to conceal them.' And so the reader enters the fascinating universe of a woman traveling amid and beyond fear, mirrors, and shadows. Night Journey: a book where existence is a daring language of dreams."—Nicole Brossard, author of Mauve Desert

"Calvino's prose (as in Invisible Cities) is the only predecessor I can cite for María Negroni's sophisticated texts, and Anne Twitty's remarkable translations are quite as striking and idiomatic as William Weaver's celebrated versions of the Italian master. These prose poems have all the glamour of narrative fables and all the lyric density of odes. One reads through Night Journey with the rare certainty that this is literature, a sequence of passionate, sorrowing renunciations; and the singular elegance of the utterance, in English as in Spanish, brings these illuminations precisely to the level where Rimbaud had left that word."—Richard Howard

"In El viaje de la noche, a sense of the uncanny is presented with a precise eloquence that preserves its hermetic nature. . . . Here we have an exceptional book, one that transforms its dark, serene, and fearsome music into a desire to read and reread."—Jorge Monteleone, Página/12, Buenos Aires

"A great book."—Jordi Villalonga, El País, Madrid

Jordi Villalonga

A great book . . .
— Jordi Villalonga, "El Pais", Madrid

Introduction

A Private-Public Cycle? 3
Chapter 1. On Disappointment 9
The Role of Disappointment in Preference Change 9
Taking Disappointment Seriously 14
Chapter 2. Varieties of Consumer Disappointment 25
The Privileged Position of Truly Nondurable Goods 27
Consumer Durables 32
Services 39
Chapter 3. The General Hostility Toward New Wealth 46
Historical Evidence from the Eighteenth Century in England and France 46
The Manifold Case against New Goods 53
Chapter 4. From Private Concerns into the Public Arena-I 62
Exit and Voice Reactions to Consumer Disappointment 62
Explaining Changes in Life-Styles: Ideology and Second-Order Volitions 66
Chapter 5. From Private Concerns into the Public Arena-II 77
Collective Action and the Rebound Effect 77
Why Free Rides Are Spurned 82
Chapter 6. The Frustrations of Participation in Public Life-1 92
The Poverty of Our Imagination 93
Overcommitment and Addiction 96
Chapter 7. The Frustrations of Participation in Public Life-II 103
The Underinvolvement of Voting 103
A Historical Digression on the Origins of Universal Suffrage 112
Chapter 8. Privatization 121
Corruption 123
Public Virtue Debunked 125
Attractions of the Private Sphere 128
CONCLUSION 131
INDEX 135

Editorial Reviews

"One of my own newest designated dreamers is the Argentine poet Maria Negroni, whose debut volume in English, Night Journey, takes the wordless logic of dreams and turns it into her own precise, oracular music. This book is pervaded by the spooky sense of a woman traveling in many directions, most of them unrequested, jouneying through shadows and mirrors, navigating the mysteries by shuttling between life and death."—-Edward Hirsch, The Washington Post

"Night Journey is a collection of prose poems, each recounting a dream sequence. . . . Many of Negroni's dreams combine elements of surrealism and lyric narrative, which creates a matrix of symbols both archetypal and idiosyncratic through which the poet confronts generally nameless, yet recognizable, fears. . . . It reminds me that when we read wonderful poetry it's as if we are privy to a delicious rumor, and we must pass it on."—-Priscila Uppal, Toronto Globe and Mail

"Arising from this intricate collection is a message. The poet comes to learn that her quest is both multiple and unified; for her, the act of writing cannot be separated from loving, from remembering, from voyagin out."—-John Taylor, The Antioch Review

From the Publisher

Arising from this intricate collection is a message. The poet comes to learn that her quest is both multiple and unified; for her, the act of writing cannot be separated from loving, from remembering, from voyagin out.

The Antioch Review - John Taylor

Night Journey is a collection of prose poems, each recounting a dream sequence. . . . Many of Negroni's dreams combine elements of surrealism and lyric narrative, which creates a matrix of symbols both archetypal and idiosyncratic through which the poet confronts generally nameless, yet recognizable, fears. . . . It reminds me that when we read wonderful poetry it's as if we are privy to a delicious rumor, and we must pass it on.

Toronto Globe and Mail - Priscila Uppal

One of my own newest designated dreamers is the Argentine poet Maria Negroni, whose debut volume in English, Night Journey, takes the wordless logic of dreams and turns it into her own precise, oracular music. This book is pervaded by the spooky sense of a woman traveling in many directions, most of them unrequested, jouneying through shadows and mirrors, navigating the mysteries by shuttling between life and death.

The Washington Post - Edward Hirsch

Arising from this intricate collection is a message. The poet comes to learn that her quest is both multiple and unified; for her, the act of writing cannot be separated from loving, from remembering, from voyagin out.
— John Taylor

The Antioch Review

Night Journey is a collection of prose poems, each recounting a dream sequence. . . . Many of Negroni's dreams combine elements of surrealism and lyric narrative, which creates a matrix of symbols both archetypal and idiosyncratic through which the poet confronts generally nameless, yet recognizable, fears. . . . It reminds me that when we read wonderful poetry it's as if we are privy to a delicious rumor, and we must pass it on.
— Priscila Uppal

Toronto Globe & Mail

One of my own newest designated dreamers is the Argentine poet Maria Negroni, whose debut volume in English, Night Journey, takes the wordless logic of dreams and turns it into her own precise, oracular music. This book is pervaded by the spooky sense of a woman traveling in many directions, most of them unrequested, jouneying through shadows and mirrors, navigating the mysteries by shuttling between life and death.
— Edward Hirsch

The Washington Post

Night Journey is a collection of prose poems, each recounting a dream sequence. . . . Many of Negroni's dreams combine elements of surrealism and lyric narrative, which creates a matrix of symbols both archetypal and idiosyncratic through which the poet confronts generally nameless, yet recognizable, fears. . . . It reminds me that when we read wonderful poetry it's as if we are privy to a delicious rumor, and we must pass it on.
— Priscila Uppal

Toronto Globe and Mail

Argentine-native Negroni has published six books of poetry; the novel El sueno de Ursula (Ursula's Dream, Seix Barral, 1998), which was a finalist for the 1997 Premio Planeta de Novela; two collections of essays on Gothic and Romantic literature; and translations of poetry from both French and English. She received a Guggenheim Fellowship for Poetry in 1994 and the 2000-2001 Octavio Paz Fellowship for Poetry. This bilingual edition is the English-language debut of El viaje de la noche, the acclaimed poetry collection that won her Argentina's Premio Nacional de Literatura. Written from the dream experience, the poems take readers into a journey of mysterious lands, apparitions, and distortions. Similar to the long poem Islandia (Iceland, Comision de Murcia, 1994), in which Negroni retells the saga of 10th-century Norwegian women who rebel against an oppressive feudal lord, the 62 poems in this collection narrate a series of dreams, in which a woman narrates her disturbing life of horror, embedded in the occult. Appearing as an exorcism of demons, these dreams are revelations in which magic is a fraternal figure. The book is a voyage into another reality. Twitty, who has translated Negroni's work into English before, brings a rare understanding of a poetic language confronted with the duality of horror and innocence. Recommended for academic and public libraries, as well as bookstores.
—Lourdes Vazquez, Rutgers Univ. Libs., New Brunswick, NJ Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

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