Water for days of thirst : selected poems / Blanca Castellón ; chosen with an introduction by Rogelio Guedea ; translated from the Spanish by Roger Hicken.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Castellón, Blanca, 1958- author.

Contributor:

Hickin, Roger, 1951- translator.

Guedea, Rogelio, 1974- editor.

Language:

English

Spanish

Subjects (All):

Castellón, Blanca, 1958---Translations into English.

Castellón, Blanca.

Nicaraguan poetry--20th century.

Nicaraguan poetry.

Nicaraguan poetry--21st century.

Nicaraguan poetry--Translations into English.

Genre:

Poetry.

Physical Description:

xv, 173 pages ; 21 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Lyttelton, New Zealand : Cold Hub Press, [2016]

Language Note:

Parallel text in English and Spanish.

Summary:

"Blanca Castellon (b.1958, Managua) is a poet of fluent dryness, emotional spareness, and intimate acuity, as light as foam and as sharp as a cut-throat razor (Rogelio Guedea). She belongs to the post-Sandinista, post-utopian generation of Nicaraguan poets who presented a more individual, more intimate and enigmatic vision than the 'exteriorist' poetry that came out of the poetry workshops of Ernesto Cardenal's Ministry of Culture. As Guedea writes in his introduction, her poetry is not a weapon loaded with the future (Gabriel Celaya) but an 'unknown island' ('insula extrana'), and this clearly links it to Pizarnik, Plath and Dickinson, but also to Ida Vitale and Idea Vilarino ... poets with unique and genuine voices who stand apart from a lyrical status quo dominated by masculine voices. It is a settling of scores with reality, a reality (inner and outer) perverse and out of order . Hers is a voice with a syncopated rhythm of bitter upset ... carefully honed, and torn, but not at the expense of her delicacy. Of Cactus body, a 2014 chapbook of Castellon's work, Gioconda Belli wrote: Blanca Castellon's poetry, in Roger Hickin's impeccable translation, possesses the great virtues of sassiness and surprise. It is full of trees with secret holes through which she slips into her own unique Wonderland where she is both Alice and the Queen of Hearts pulling an ace from her sleeve with a quiet flourish that turns everything upside down. Cactus Body is a small door which opens on to the world of wonder and beauty of an exceptional poet. Poet Michael Harlow wrote: This is an excellent match of poet and translator: Roger Hickin's translations are clearly the work of a poet-translator who is nicely attuned to the thought-music of the originals, able to articulate the tensions inherent in a poetry that is willing to take risks with feeling in search of a language."--Back cover.

Contents:

-BLANCA CASTELLON: POETRY AS DESERT ISLAND: ROGELIO GUEDEA

-from AMA DEL ESPIRITU (1995)

Mapa / Map

Nicaragua /Nicaragua

Paisaje / Seascape

Anclaje / Anchor

-from FLOTACIONES (1998)

Genuflexiones / Genuflections

Mala administracion / Bad management

En tela de duda / Unclear

Grieta / Crack

Flotaciones / Flotations

En el aire / In the air

Llamada / Signal

Mal entendido / Misunderstood

Hueco / Hollow

'Todo parece tener solucion' / 'It seems the key to everything' [IV] / [IV]

Rotaciones / Rotations

-from ORILLA OPUESTA (2000)

Cuando se excede la lluvia / When rain outdoes itself Planes / Plans

La cruz / The cross

Corriente adversa / Adverse current

Sereno / Watcher

Respiracion del enigma / Enigma's breath

Tolerancia / Tolerance

Capricho / Whim

Orilla opuesta / The opposite shore

-from LOS MORIDORES

Alumbramiento / Birth

Aqui en familia / All in the family ChapuzOn / Dive

Adios tristeza / Goodbye sadness

De perros y poetas / Of dogs and poets

De B. a B. / From B. to B.

Fe de errata / Errata

Gente / People

Trepan.acion virtual / Virtual trepanation

Una de cuatro (Una propia pared) / One of four (A wall of one's own)

Golpe al silencio / A blow to silence

Sucesos / Events

Soliflexion / Soliflection

Los moridores / We who are about to die

El vencedor / The winner

Traducciones verdes / Interpreting green

Me voy a marte / I'm off to Mars

Febrero / February.

ISBN:

9780473367190

047336719X

OCLC:

960885215