America
America
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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781619322448 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Copper Canyon Press |
| Publication date: | 12/27/2021 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| File size: | 3 MB |
About the Author
Fernando Valverde is a preeminent poet writing in the Spanish language today, and he has received international acclaim for his contributions to the art of poetry. Born in Granada, Spain, Valverde has been awarded some of the most prestigious awards for Spanish poetry, and his books have been published across Europe and the Americas. In 2014 his book The Insistence of Harm received the Book of the Year award from the Latino American Writers Institute of the City University of New York. Valverde was also nominated for a Latin Grammy i work integrating poetry and flamenco. In addition to his artistic success, he directs the International Festival of Poetry in Granada, which has received hundreds of distinguished poets since its inauguration. Valverde is a distinguished visiting professor at the University of Virginia.
Fernando Valverde is a preeminent poet writing in the Spanish language today, and he has received international acclaim for his contributions to the art of poetry. Born in Granada, Spain, Valverde has been awarded some of the most prestigious awards for Spanish poetry, and his books have been published across Europe and the Americas. In 2014 his book The Insistence of Harm received the Book of the Year award from the Latino American Writers Institute of the City University of New York. Before coming to the United States, Valverde served as a foreign correspondent for Spain’s major paper, El Pais,covering war zones in the Balkans and the Middle East. He directs the International Festival of Poetry in Granada, and is a distinguished visiting professor at the University of Virginia.
Carolyn Forché is a poet, activist, and translator who has been celebrated with some of the most significant recognition in the literary world. Born in Detroit, Michigan in 1950, Forché is widely recognized for coining the term “poetry of witness.” She is a professor at Georgetown University.
Read an Excerpt
THE SONS OF THE EMPEROR CELEBRATE ABUNDANCE
AT ONE WITH WHAT NO LONGER EXISTS
When thou hast eaten and art full.
—Deuteronomy 8:10
The world turned a vile market place.
—Espronceda
400,000 children killed to free the world,
the waters of the rivers were filled with blood,
the waters of the rivers of Europe with the blood of America
flowing through the Danube and the Seine,
dead fish and an unbreathable stench on the banks of the Rhine,
on the bridges of the Thames.
400,000 dead children are the future
become a serpent
before the eyes of the prophet,
on this side of the wall there is freedom
the free world
born of the victory
of the dead soldiers.
The waters of the rivers quenched thirst again,
washed the blood from the wooden ships,
and the stones and the mountains,
and in the houses kitchens flourished,
and the buildings rose
one on top of the other
like fire escapes
and solitude was a wanderer within the multitude,
and the crowd a shadow chasing abundance,
and then millions of frogs emerged from the rivers
that filled the kitchens and the ovens and the troughs,
and the dust of the earth became lice
on beasts and men,
and swarms of flies filled the houses of the misers,
but this, too, was not enough,
the cold sown in their hearts
kept rising
until it became a plague
moving like a hurricane through the great plains,
hunger had the taste of rotten flesh,
hell was a foundry,
assembly lines,
greed does not understand the justification for a fatherland,
greed circulates freely,
it crosses walls, borders, currencies, calculations,
you have to remember that this land is not yours,
you have to remember it.
the emperor repeats again and again,
because the worst is yet to come,
the worst was not the last 50,000 dead children
that filled the Saigon River with blood,
the evil is in the blood of those who arrive
in the hell of the foundries,
united by what no longer exists.
They will be the boils on the bodies
of man and beast,
only stone will be able to protect fruit and root,
only stone can serve as a shelter.
Hurricanes arrived,
tornadoes,
food rations at daybreak,
fire mixed with hail
tearing the trees,
destroying the walls and dykes of the emperor
to flood the homes of those who suffer.
But the heart of the man who lived in the golden house remained frozen,
because the force of the wind and the storm were useless
to those who never experienced
relief from disaster,
to those who did not know what it means
to be defeated by indifference,
to be water before blood
And guilt was mud stuck to the shoes of those who walked,
it was suspicion and also vigilance,
latches on the gates,
for safety reasons,
metal detectors in airports,
mass deportations and new laws
to calm the fear of freedom.
Once the children became insensitive
to the hardness of the emperor,
to greed,
to the vile market,
to the codes written with the pain of the weak,
when everyone stopped paying attention
accustomed to solemnity,
protected behind words and correctness
and bank accounts
and propaganda
and the arguments that belie the propaganda,
everything was ready for the arrival of the thickest darkness
in which no one could see his neighbor:
only the golden staff of the emperor
was recognizable by all,
now only in his hands were men and animals
and also women
and locusts
and fields razed by locusts.
The end is known and ancient,
the death of all the firstborn,
whether it be the son of an emperor
or a a servant
or a beast.
And there was no house in which the hearts of men did not turn to ice.
THE BALADA OF NEW ENGLAND
Love is anterior to life.
Emily Dickinson
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood.
Robert Frost
After the sea, the whole sea, the cold land,
the icy wind that comes from Nova Scotia
and is a snow crab in the boots of a Maine fisherman
who comes home for dinner,
a bowl of hot soup returns the rosiness to his lips,
then he watches a log burn in the fireplace,
only fire has learned to climb on the cold,
it’s not that fierce for someone who has seen the sea rising in a storm.
The northern shores are a lament,
the crying descends through its gorges
until it touches the surface of the waves,
on the rocks
its mark remains, as in the faces
of those who have suffered,
pain leaves its ruin.
In the northern ports it dawns early
and life is as ancient as an old sea lion.
This is the shore of the first colonists
from the oldest island in the world,
they came chasing opportunities,
following the ocean currents
while they prayed,
they came because they followed the word of God
to a rocky shore touched by tears
over the same ocean from whence they came.
They brought the songs,
the nets,
their words,
they brought the hook and their churches,
but also sin.
The devil pursues his own opportunities.
The bodies of the witches of New England are hanging,
they hang before the multitude
a few steps from Salem Harbor
where fishermen set out each night
in the direction of the land or their birth.
In the northern ports, life comes back
with the smell of fish.
It's New England time,
the sun
comes like an old puritan
and it rises over the ocean
and gives leave to the flight of the birds,
it lights a window in Amherst
where the eyes of a woman contemplate the world,
love is anterior to life,
but it departs with the birds of the dawn through her window.
The sun comes on the footprints of men,
it comes over the trees, it is reflected in the lakes,
it follows its route strictly,
without going off course,
with a will that only faith can provide,
the faith
that arrived with the first ships
to populate mountains.
But with it also came indecision
and doubt,
the East
and the West,
watchful eyes,
races,
hooks,
Sundays, even continents
without lines on the maps,
but also the maps
with their borders,
freedom,
the roads that diverge in a yellow wood.
New England’s time has come,
the sun comes from the east like a ship sent forth by the future.
Table of Contents
Introduction xvii
Los hijos del emperador celebran la abundancia unidos por lo que ya no existe / The Sons of the Emperor Celebrate Abundance at One with What No Longer Exists 2
Los condenados de Fulton Avenue persiguen las senales del cielo y de la tierra / The Condemned of Fulton Avenue Follow the Signals from Heaven and Earth 10
Los muchachos de Camden / The Boys of Camden 16
La noticia de Dios al otro lado del puente Benjamin Franklin / The News of God on the Other Side of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge 20
Herida frente a la rumba de Walt Whitman / The Wound before the Tomb of Walt Whitman 24
La Tierra Prometida / The Promised Land
Ellis Island 30
Esclavos de Guinea llegan a la plantatión de Buenaventura / Guinea Slaves Arrive at the Plantation of Bonaventure (Bonaventure Cemetery, Savannah) 36
El cuerpo sin vida de Hernando de Soto se hunde en el río Mississippi / The Lifeless Body of Hernando de Soto Sinks in the Mississippi River 40
Butch Cassidy ingresa en la prisión estatal de Wyoming / Butch Cassidy Enters the State Prison of Wyoming 44
Antonio Machado escucha las sombras del atardecer en Long Island / Antonio Machado Listens to the Shadows of the Sunset in Long Island 48
La casa de Lake Alfred / The House in Lake Alfred 52
1 Ruta 66 / Route 66
2 Gales-Pensilvania / Wales-Pennsylvania
3 John H. Evans
4 Artemisa
5 Arthur McNeer y Florence Root / Arthur McNeer and Florence Root
6 Base aérea de Edwards, California / Edwards Air Force Base, California
7 Artemisa María Consuelo Ramonet
8 Lake Alfred, Florida
La balada de Nueva Inglaterra / The Balada of New England 68
La Patria Es Una Madre Que Reparte La Suerte Entre Las Bocas / The Country is a Mother Who Distributes Luck among the Mouths
Raza / Race 78
La patria es una madre que reparte la suerte entre las bocas / The Country Is a Mother Who Distributes Luck among the Mouths 82
La ceguera / The Blindness 86
La soledad es un invierno frente al mar del pasado / Solitude Is a Winter before the Sea of the Past 88
Ruby Bridges camina con escolta federal hacia la tierra prometida / Ruby Bridges Walks with Federal Escort to the Promised Land 90
JFK abandona la patria para conquistar la muerte / JFK Leaves the Country to Conquer Death 92
Shootings
Austin, Texas, 1966. 100
Columbine High School, Littleton, Colorado, 1999. 106
Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, 2007. 110
Westroads Mall, Omaha, Nebraska, 2007. 112
Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newtown, Connecticut, 2012. 116
Pulse, Orlando, Florida, 2016. 118
Mandalay Bay Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada, 2017. 120
First Baptist Church, Sutherland Springs, Texas, 2017. 124
La Tierra Salvaje / The Wild Land
El reverendo Martin Luther King Jr. avista la tierra prometida / The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. Sees the Promised Land 130
Gwendolyn A. T. borrada del paisaje del golfo de Mississippi / Gwendolyn A.T. Erased from the Mississippi Gulf Landscape 134
Eagle Pond: el pasado es un país bajo la tierra / Eagle Pond: The Past Is a Country under the Earth 140
Edgar Allan Poe es alcanzado en el puerto de Baltimore por las sombras que le persiguen / Edgar Allan Poe Is Reached at the Baltimore Harbor by the Shadows That Pursue Him 152
Jack Kerouac busca una moneda para cruzar el último río de America / Jack Kerouac Looks for a Coin to Cross the Last River of America 156
Kurt Cobain cierra la puerta de su invernadero / Kurt Cobain Closes the Door of His Greenhouse 158
Jeff Buckley se adentra en las aguas del río Mississippi / Jeff Buckley Goes into the Waters of the Mississippi River 160
El país de los lobos solitarios / The Country of Lone Wolves 164
About the Author 169
About the Translator 171