Todos somos Whitman / We Are All Whitman

by Luis Alberto Ambroggio, Sanders translator

Overview

“Whitman, we are your epitaph, I and everyone / or better yet, you live in us since you told us / that each atom of your body was also ours, / just as we, like you, are the summer’s and all the seasons’ grass,” Luis Alberto Ambroggio writes in this poetic homage to the great American poet.

Ambroggio was inspired to respond to Whitman’s work after translating a series of essays about Song of Myself. This collection of 53 poems in English and Spanish is the result. Sometimes he includes a line from the master in his own piece, other times an epigraph introduces the verse. Either way, Whitman’s influence is notable. Many of Ambroggio’s poems—like Whitman’s—deal with physical pleasure: “To stretch myself out on your body. / Outspread myself from head to toes / from earth to sky / from my body to yours, and to other bodies / with libidinous prongs that pierce the horizon / and turn loose seas of bright juice.”

A native of Argentina, the poet views Whitman’s work through his Latin American lens, noting that Whitman’s “multitudes” include those who will not be denied, ignored or declared undocumented. Other poems consider nature and death. “We are walking in autumn / among the red lips of maples / the smiles and yellow tears / of trees trembling with joy and sadness,” he writes. “We walk between the twin doors / of summer and winter / of death and life.”

Focusing on themes of identity, love and life, this collection will inspire readers to understand the universality in us all. Ultimately, we will all go to where we came from, “air, shadow, sun, dust.” Originally published in Spanish by Vaso Roto Ediciones, this edition includes the original Spanish text and a luminous English translation by Brett Alan Sanders.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781518500473
Publisher:	Arte Publico Press
Publication date:	07/01/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB
Language:	Spanish

About the Author

LUIS ALBERTO AMBROGGIO is the author of seventeen poetry collections published in Spain, Argentina and the United States. His work has appeared in numerous anthologies, including Red Hot Salsa (Henry Holt and Co., 2005) and Cool Salsa (Henry Holt and Co., 1994). He lives in the Washington, DC area.

BRETT ALAN SANDERS is the translator of Passionate Nomads (Aliform Publishing, 2010) and Awaiting the Green Morning (Host Publications, 2008), both by María Rosa Lojo. The author of a novella, A Bride Called Freedom (Ediciones Nuevo Espacio, 2003), his short prose has appeared in numerous journals, including New Work Review and The King’s English. He lives and works in Tell City, Indiana.