What's in a Name
Nonfiction, Entertainment, Drama, Continental European, Fiction & Literature, Poetry
| Author: | Ana Luísa Amaral | ISBN: | 9780811228336 |
| Publisher: | New Directions | Publication: | February 26, 2019 |
| Imprint: | New Directions | Language: | English |
| Author: | Ana Luísa Amaral |
| ISBN: | 9780811228336 |
| Publisher: | New Directions |
| Publication: | February 26, 2019 |
| Imprint: | New Directions |
| Language: | English |
Poems of effervescent grace from one of the best-known and best-loved poets of Portugal
With the elliptical looping of a butterfly alighting on one’s sleeve, the poems of Ana Lui´sa Amaral arrive as small hypnotic miracles. Spare and beautiful in a way reminiscent both of Szymborska and of Emily Dickinson (it comes as no surprise that Amaral is the leading Portuguese translator of Dickinson), these poems—in Margaret Jull Costa’s gorgeous English versions—seamlessly interweave the everyday with the dreamlike and ask “What’s in a name?”
“How solid is a name if answered to,” Amaral answers, but “like the Rose—no, like its perfume: ungovernable. Free.” There is much freedom within Amaral’s poetry, room for mysteries to multiply, and yet her beautiful lines are as clear as water:
* *
And that time of smiles Which does, incidentally,
* *
really exist, I swear, as does the fire
And the invisible sea, which with nothing will agree
Poems of effervescent grace from one of the best-known and best-loved poets of Portugal
With the elliptical looping of a butterfly alighting on one’s sleeve, the poems of Ana Lui´sa Amaral arrive as small hypnotic miracles. Spare and beautiful in a way reminiscent both of Szymborska and of Emily Dickinson (it comes as no surprise that Amaral is the leading Portuguese translator of Dickinson), these poems—in Margaret Jull Costa’s gorgeous English versions—seamlessly interweave the everyday with the dreamlike and ask “What’s in a name?”
“How solid is a name if answered to,” Amaral answers, but “like the Rose—no, like its perfume: ungovernable. Free.” There is much freedom within Amaral’s poetry, room for mysteries to multiply, and yet her beautiful lines are as clear as water:
* *
And that time of smiles Which does, incidentally,
* *
really exist, I swear, as does the fire
And the invisible sea, which with nothing will agree
