Selected Poetry of Delmira Agustini

" Alejandro C a ceres has made a fine selection and enlightened translation of Agustini ' s oeuvres and, in addition, presents us with the key details of her life along with a profound and scholarly discourse on the significance of her work in the context of contemporary literary movements. His devotion to detail and concept is revealed on each page. His study is essential in making this introduction of Agustini to the reader in English felicitous. " -- Willis Barnstone, from the Foreword "Alejandro Caceres has made a fine selection and enlightened translation of Agustini's oeuvres and, in addition, presents us with the key details of her life along with a profound and scholarly discourse on the significance of her work in the context of contemporary literary movements. His devotion to detail and concept is revealed on each page. His study is essential in making this introduction of Agustini to the reader in English felicitous."--Willis Barnstone, from the Foreword This is the first book-length anthology in English by the most important modernista female poet from Latin America. Delmira Agustini was a pioneer in expressing female eroticism, and the precursor of other respected women in the field, such as Juana de Ibarbourou and Alfonsina Storni. The book's arrival is therefore to be welcomed by scholars in poetics and women's studies. The editor has made a good selection of Agustini's production from the three collections published in her lifetime, and from the work which came out posthumously, after the poet's tragic death at the hands of her estranged husband (whom she visited clandestinely whilst their divorce was in process). There are about half of Agustini's total output of around 130 poems, and they appear in facing bilingual versions. The quality of the translations is good, and the intention is to remain as literal as possible, which is a good strategy when confronted with the richness and evasiveness of this poet's language and imagery. In the Introduction, Ca'ceres recycles some of the material in his Spanish edition of Agustini's complete works (Montevideo, 1999), and generally does a good job of introducing the poet to the English-speaking reader. The book, in hardback, is very attractive and a pleasure to hold; the only criticism is that the font could have been slightly larger. Alejandro Caceres has made a fine selection and enlightened translation of Agustini s oeuvres and, in addition, presents us with the key details of her life along with a profound and scholarly discourse on the significance of her work in the context of contemporary literary movements. His devotion to detail and concept is revealed on each page. His study is essential in making this introduction of Agustini to the reader in English felicitous. Willis Barnstone, from the Foreword"

Alejandro Caceres, an associate professor of Spanish in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, and has lived in the United States since 1977. He is the editor of the definitive critical edition of the complete poems of Delmira Agustini, published in Uruguay by Ediciones de la Plaza."