Lannan Translations Selection Series – serie

"In A Matter of Blue, we read that blue is what we would like to cultivate, something that clings to bees' feet and the poet's lips, something that can be used as a basis for composition or creation, something that is inherent in the gaze of the dark-eyed women ..."-Dawn Cornelio A Matter of Blue is the most successful book by Maulpoix, author of over 25 French collections of poetry and the rightful heir to the 150-year tradition of French prose poetry. Jean-Michel Maulpoix (www.maulpoix.net) is director of a quarterly literary journal and professor of poetry at University Paris X-Nanterre. Dawn Cornelio wrote her PhD thesis on translating Maulpoix. She is assistant professor of French studies at University of Guelph, Ontario.

This collection of 106 poems by 44 female Tang-era poets is the most comprehensive of its kind. Poets are organized based on their status in Tang dynasty society: women of the court, women of the household, courtesans and entertainers, and women of religion. While each poet's concerns vary with their social status, common thematic threads include heartbreak and the mysteries of the natural world. Thumbnail biographies of each poet and notes regarding individual poems complete this important collection. Jeanne Larsen has published poetry, three novels set in China, and a book of poetry translation, Brocade River Poems: Selected Works of the Tang Dynasty Courtesan Xue Tao. She teaches in the creative writing program at Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia.

Born in Syria in 1930, Adonis later moved to Lebanon and became a pivotal figure in the new poetry of the late 1960s. With the publication of Mihyar of Damascus: His Songs in 1963-widely viewed as a watershed moment in Arabic poetry-Adonis forged a new set of possibilities for Arabic poetry, writing in traditional meters but infusing them with modernist rhythms, styles, and conceptual complexities. Translators Adnan Haydar (University of Arkansas in Fayetteville) and Michael Beard (University of North Dakota) co-edit a series of books, Middle East Literature in Translation, for Syracuse University Press.

Born in Syria in 1930, Adonis later moved to Lebanon and became a pivotal figure in the new poetry of the late 1960s. With the publication of Mihyar of Damascus: His Songs in 1963-widely viewed as a watershed moment in Arabic poetry-Adonis forged a new set of possibilities for Arabic poetry, writing in traditional meters but infusing them with modernist rhythms, styles, and conceptual complexities. Translators Adnan Haydar (University of Arkansas in Fayetteville) and Michael Beard (University of North Dakota) co-edit a series of books, Middle East Literature in Translation, for Syracuse University Press.

As tropical as it is topical, this landmark anthology gives voice to three powerful women poets from the Dominican Republic. Together they present a wide array of linguistic and stylistic elements, and they address shared political and cultural issues that illuminate what it means to be a woman in the modern-day Dominican Republic. Translator Judith Kerman, who began the anthology as a Senior Fulbright Scholar, notes that "contemporary women poets from the Dominican Republic are the most underserved group when it comes to English-language translations." This anthology remedies that omission with poetry that is smart, edgy, and groundbreaking.

"These poems move mysteriously by means of a profound inner concentration, giving expression to the deepest laws of the mind. Their linguistic 'making' is informed by vivid evidence of a serious self-making, soul-making, and heart-making. We are lucky to have these English incarnations of Nikola Madzirov."--Li-Young Lee Born 1973 in a family of Balkan Wars refugees, Nikola Madzirov's poetry has already been translated into thirty languages and published in collections and anthologies in the United States, Europe, and Asia. A regular participant in international literary festivals, he has received several international awards including an International Writing Program fellowship at the University of Iowa. Remnants of Another Age is his first full-length American collection and carries a foreword by Carolyn Forche who writes, "Nikola Madzirov's Remnants of Another Age is aptly titled, as these poems seem to spring from elsewhere in time, reflective of a preternaturally wise and attentive sensibility. As we read these poems, they begin to inhabit us, and we are the better for having opened ourselves to them. Madzirov is a rare soul and a true poet.""I SAW DREAMS" I saw dreams that no one remembers and people wailing at the wrong graves. I saw embraces in a falling airplane and streets with open arteries. I saw volcanoes asleep longer than the roots of the family tree and a child who's not afraid of the rain. Only it was me no one saw, only it was me no one saw.

The Oasis of Now is the first U.S. book publication of the works of Sohrab Sepehri (1928–1980), one of the major Iranian poets of the twentieth century. Well-versed in Buddhism, mysticism, and Western traditions, Sepehri mingled Western concepts with Eastern ones, creating a poetry unsurpassed in the history of Persian literature. In Iran, his Persian verses are often recited in public gatherings and lines from them were used as slogans by the protesters in 2009. This first full-length American volume collects poems from three of Sepehri's most important books, including the highly acclaimed Water's Footfall.I want to know:Why is a horse noble and the dove belovedbut no one keeps a pet vulture in a gilded cage.Why is the humble clover trodden upon rather than the red tulip.I want to see anew and wash the words of the worldin wind and rain.Sohrab Sepehri wrote the poems collected in The Oasis of Now after traveling through Japan, China, and India, where he was exposed to the arts of those countries as well as the spiritual disciplines of Buddhism, Taoism, and Hinduism. This book is crucial for anyone interested in Iranian arts and culture.Kazim Ali is author of ten books of poetry, fiction, essays, and translations. He is an associate professor at Oberlin College and founding editor of Nightboat Books.Mohammad Jafar Mahallati is Presidential Scholar in the religion department of Oberlin College. He served as Iran's ambassador to the United Nations from 1987 to 1989 and was instrumental in brokering a peace agreement between Iran and Iraq during that time.

Dariusz Sosnicki's poems open our eyes to the sublime just beneath the surface of the mundane: a train carrying children away from their parents for summer vacation turns into a ravenous monster; a meal at a Chinese restaurant inspires a surreal journey through the zodiac; a malfunctioning printer is a reminder of the ghosts that haunt us no matter where we find ourselves. Among the perpetrators and victims, buzzed or wasted to the bone, gliding without their blinkers on in the ruts of the national fate-they're not at home. Dariusz Sosnicki is an award-winning poet, essayist, and editor in Poland.

Novica Tadic is Serbia’s leading poet and the linguistic heir to Vasko Popa. With this translation, US Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize–winner Charles Simic brings the full range of Tadic’s dark beauty to light:I dream how on a flat surfaceI set down knives of variousshapes and sizes.Already there are so many of themI can’t count them,or see them all. Someone’s being done inby those knives.Novica Tadic has won most major Serbian literary awards, including the prestigious Laureat Nagrade. Charles Simic’s latest poetry collection is That Little Something (Harcourt, 2008).

Presented bilingually, this first US publication of Jawdat Fakhreddine—one of the major Lebanese names in modern Arabic poetry—establishes a revolutionary dialogue between international, modernist values and the Arabic tradition. Fakhreddine’s unique voice is a breakthrough for the poetic language of his generation—an approach that presents poetry as a beacon, a lighthouse that both opposes and penetrates all forms of darkness.Stars:Stars of oursthat did not shine in the shroud of night,but we took joy in themwhen the night was a gloom all around us.To our children, we write:We are not your lighthouse.Do not follow the path we light,but be your own secrets.Jawdat Fakhreddine was born in 1953 in a small village in southern Lebanon. A professor of Arabic literature at the Lebanese University in Beirut, he is one of the major Lebanese names in Modern Arabic Poetry, and is considered one of the second generation poets of the modernist movement in the Arab world. He earned an MA in Physics and taught at the high school level for more than 10 years. During this time he published a number of poetry collections and was encouraged by Adonis to work on a PhD in Arabic literature. Fakhreddine intermittently publishes articles and new poems in al-Hayat newspaper, which is an Arab newspaper published in London and distributed worldwide, and in as-Safir, one of the two major Lebanese Newspapers. He writes a weekly article in al-Khaleej newspaper, a widely distributed gulf daily newspaper. He currently lives in Beirut, Lebanon.

WINNER OF THE 2018 NORTHERN CALIFORNIA BOOK AWARD FOR POETRY TRANSLATIONIn this first US publication of celebrated Italian poet Bianca Tarozzi, narrative poems (presented bilingually in both English and the original Italian) carry us through the poet's childhood memories of World War II under Mussolini, harsh post-war conditions, and mid-century changes that transformed Italian life, specifically for women. A unique figure in contemporary Italian poetry, Tarozzi draws significant influence from acclaimed American poets—Robert Lowell, Elizabeth Bishop, and James Merrill—interweaving powerful subjects with humor and heart.After:you have packed the suitcase, shut off the gas,turned all the lights out, locked the windowand the big outside door,when you lean against a wall, afraid of falling,and wait, expecting the vehicle,the means that will transport youfar away,when the sky sails clear,blue, and annihilating above the overpass,and you have no past or future,in that empty momentpoetry pitches its tent.Bianca Tarozzi was born in Bologna in 1941. Her father was a political prisoner under Mussolini, and then a Senator after the war. She received a degree from Ca' Foscari University of Venice, and taught English and American Literature for many years at the University of Verona. The recipient of numerous literary honors, she has translated into Italian the works of Elizabeth Bishop, Emily Dickinson, James Merrill, Richard Wilbur, A. E. Housman, Denise Levertov, and Louise Gluck. Also the author of many books of poetry, she began writing poems in 1947, and continues to this day. She currently splits her time between Venice and Milan, Italy.

"In A Matter of Blue, we read that blue is what we would like to cultivate, something that clings to bees' feet and the poet's lips, something that can be used as a basis for composition or creation, something that is inherent in the gaze of the dark-eyed women ..."-Dawn Cornelio A Matter of Blue is the most successful book by Maulpoix, author of over 25 French collections of poetry and the rightful heir to the 150-year tradition of French prose poetry. Jean-Michel Maulpoix (www.maulpoix.net) is director of a quarterly literary journal and professor of poetry at University Paris X-Nanterre. Dawn Cornelio wrote her PhD thesis on translating Maulpoix. She is assistant professor of French studies at University of Guelph, Ontario.

The writing of Felipe Benitez Reyes, a significant contributor to the Spanish Postmodern esthetic, speaks to issues of voice, persona, and the possibilities of fiction. Probable Lives won the 1996 National Book Award in Spain, the 1996 National Critics' Award in Spain, and the City of Melilla International Prize. A book of heteronyms, the character-poets in Probable Lives read as forgotten or unknown twentieth-century authors, all "rediscovered" and compiled by an anthologist who is also the creation of Reyes. Probable Lives tweaks the notion of identity in ways that are both engaging and downright funny.