Casting Off (Soltando Amarras)
Now in her 70s, Claribel Alegría is universally recognized as the major living poet of El Salvador. Casting Off extends the themes Alegría explored in Sorrow: the loss of a loved one, solitude, and reflections on the past. As the title -implies, this collection is also a lyric farewell: "My footsteps are leading / toward quiet solitude / toward the star-silence / that has no more questions."\ She is becoming increasingly well-known in the U.S. as a result of her many tours, readings, and...
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Now in her 70s, Claribel Alegría is universally recognized as the major living poet of El Salvador. Casting Off extends the themes Alegría explored in Sorrow: the loss of a loved one, solitude, and reflections on the past. As the title -implies, this collection is also a lyric farewell: "My footsteps are leading / toward quiet solitude / toward the star-silence / that has no more questions."She is becoming increasingly well-known in the U.S. as a result of her many tours, readings, and residencies. She will return to the U.S. in the spring to promote Casting Off.The English versions in this bilingual edition are by renowned translator Margaret Sayers Peden, who beautifully preserves the lyric quality of this major poet at the height of her career.The Ache of AbsenceOh how my fingertips acheWhen I hold out my handAnd don't find you.Claribel Alegría, the child of a Nicaraguan father and a Salvadoran mother, was born in Estelí, Nicaragua, in 1924. Since she grew up in El Salvador, she considers herself Salvadoran and has received many national prizes from that country. Her works include 12 volumes of poetry, a number of novels and children's stories-many of which have been translated into English. Sorrow won the Independent Publisher Book Award for Poetry in 2000 and was a BookSense selection. Her work is featured in numerous anthologies, including Bill Moyers' The Language of Life.Publishers WeeklyA cornerstone of Bill Moyers's PBS poetry special, El Salvador poet Claribel Alegria has spent several semesters in the U.S. as a visiting writer, and now offers The Soltando Amarras/ Casting Off, a new collection of poems in Spanish, with en-face translations by Margaret Sayers Peden: "The world isn't ending,/ it's changing,/ Cassandra,/ it's changing." Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Arachne3Rain5Voyage Toward Myself9Bite11Return to Deya Without You13You Made the Great Leap15Hurricane Mitch17Dionysius19Tiresias21Haiku25Atropos27Now29New York - Madrid31Destinies33Still37Old Age39Resurrection41You Have Changed, Death43The Ache of Absence45Janus47Masks49My Cat51Limbo53Narcissus55Santa Ana57Yesterday at Noon59Antigone61My Shadow63Medea65Where?69Road to Damascus71Francesca's Lament73Outside Myself75Onerous Weight77Return79A New Horizon81The Minotaur83Revelation85Cassandra87Casting Off89I Awoke to the Day91Digressions93It's Time to Give Up95Lazarus97Lilith99I Must Let You Go101Curtain103
\ Publishers WeeklyA cornerstone of Bill Moyers's PBS poetry special, El Salvador poet Claribel Alegria has spent several semesters in the U.S. as a visiting writer, and now offers The Soltando Amarras/ Casting Off, a new collection of poems in Spanish, with en-face translations by Margaret Sayers Peden: "The world isn't ending,/ it's changing,/ Cassandra,/ it's changing." Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.\ \ \ \ \ CriticasOne of the best-known contemporary women writers in Central America, Nicaraguan-born Alegria won the prestigious Casa de las Americas prize in 1978 for Sobrevivo (I Survive, Casa de las Americas, 1978). Her work, which includes several poetry volumes, novels, and children's books, as well as essays and testimonials, has made her a leading literary voice in the struggle for Central American liberation, especially in El Salvador, where she grew up. Besides exploring the meaning of life by reflecting upon death and the fragility of the human body, this bilingual volume of short, lyrical poems focuses on love. In a powerful dialog between herself and her dead husband, Alegria tries to understand her new role, without her loved one, and the difficulties of "casting off." "It is hard for me/to let go of myself/to engender myself/to conceive myself," she writes. As with Saudade/Sorrow (Curbstone Pr., 1999), another book of poems that addresses her grief over her husband's death, this collection contains a strong charge of sadness. Sayers Peden's accurate translation captures not only the dialog that the poet maintains with the mythical gods and goddesses-references to classical figures abound-but also the meditative tone of the poems: "It's time now/to give up, my exhausting/and exhausted body." The measure of time seems to have changed for the poet, who now gauges it in tangible sensations and deceptions. Recommended for academic and public libraries as well as bookstores. \ —Lourdes V zquez, Rutgers Univ. Lib., New Brunswick, NJ Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.\ \ \ Library JournalAn important voice in Central American literature, the 78-year-old Alegria has published many volumes that document the struggle for political and social justice, particularly in El Salvador. Having explored the death of her husband, Darwin Flakoll, in a previous book called Sorrow, she here probes deeper implications of bereavement. Alegria frequently evokes classic figures (Antigone, Cassandra), overcoming fear and self-pity to portray a journey of liberation to a "new horizon" of "star-silence." As in Greek tragedy, she illuminates her own pain while articulating a lofty public vision of human rights. Poems expressing what it means to grow old ("I walk toward the road's ending") and the difficulties of "casting off" ("it is hard for me/ to let go of myself") become splendid reflective testimonials to a belief in redemptive capacities of courage and love. What results is a stark, grief-filled landscape at once personal and universal. This bilingual collection is recommended for all libraries.-Frank Allen, Northampton Community Coll., Tannersville, PA Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.\ \
