Beyond the Sea

Beyond the Sea brings together two book-length sequences first published in Mexico in the early years of the century, both taking their origins from Greece, a matter of central importance for the poet for many years. Fittingly, for subject-matter thoroughly drenched in the Greek past, the poems are odes and dithyrambs, with the spirit of one sequence being Apollonian, while the other is Dionysian. The gods are there, and imagery that has echoed across the centuries is here transposed into a limpid modern Mexican poetry, composed with the lightest of touches. Here the Mayans of Bonampak meet the Minoans of Knossos, united across the centuries and thousands of miles by their preservation in wall-paintings, and by their observer. Here the gods meet our gaze, and come forth, raised from the ashes of history. They are not dead; they are not forgotten; they have merely been sleeping, only to be awoken by the poet. Elsa Cross is one of the most important living Mexican poets, and this fine translation by the Irish poet, Anamaria Crowe Serrano, does her work spectacular justice.