Of Such a Nature/Índole
An English translation from one of Latin America’s most distinguished poets.
 
José Kozer is one of the most influential contemporary Cuban poets working today. A key figure in the neobaroque movement within contemporary Latin American poetry, he is one of only three Cubans to ever win the Pablo Neruda Prize given by the Neruda Foundation in Chile. He is the author of close to ninety books, including Este judío de números y letras, Bajo este cien, La garza sin sombras, Carece de causa, and Y del esparto la invariabilidad. Kozer is also noteworthy as a key poet of the Cuban diaspora, having left Cuba in 1960 and residing ever since in the United States.

Of Such a Nature/Índole is a bilingual edition translated into English by Peter Boyle. In addition, Boyle provides an extensive introduction placing Kozer’s work in a critical context.

The Spanish word “índole” can be translated as: “a type,” “a sort,” or “that sort of thing.” The title, Índole, therefore suggests that the poems gathered in this collection, are all instances of specific types of situations, things, or experiences. Kozer has gathered a collection of poems about everyday life—cleaning one’s dentures, a woman leaning over a bowl of oatmeal, a salamander glimpsed while eating breakfast—but always with death not far away.

Of Such a Nature/Índole is a remarkable collection of poems published in Cuba in 2012, covering such materials as Kozer’s Jewish heritage, his Cuban childhood and ongoing connection to the Island, Buddhist and East Asian traditions of spiritual practice, his everyday life in Florida with Guadalupe, ageing, illness, and the shadow of death. Irony and humor are there as well, and to read these poems is to be in the presence of the full seriousness of poetry and its playfulness, its ability to undercut all pretensions.
1140547432
Of Such a Nature/Índole
An English translation from one of Latin America’s most distinguished poets.
 
José Kozer is one of the most influential contemporary Cuban poets working today. A key figure in the neobaroque movement within contemporary Latin American poetry, he is one of only three Cubans to ever win the Pablo Neruda Prize given by the Neruda Foundation in Chile. He is the author of close to ninety books, including Este judío de números y letras, Bajo este cien, La garza sin sombras, Carece de causa, and Y del esparto la invariabilidad. Kozer is also noteworthy as a key poet of the Cuban diaspora, having left Cuba in 1960 and residing ever since in the United States.

Of Such a Nature/Índole is a bilingual edition translated into English by Peter Boyle. In addition, Boyle provides an extensive introduction placing Kozer’s work in a critical context.

The Spanish word “índole” can be translated as: “a type,” “a sort,” or “that sort of thing.” The title, Índole, therefore suggests that the poems gathered in this collection, are all instances of specific types of situations, things, or experiences. Kozer has gathered a collection of poems about everyday life—cleaning one’s dentures, a woman leaning over a bowl of oatmeal, a salamander glimpsed while eating breakfast—but always with death not far away.

Of Such a Nature/Índole is a remarkable collection of poems published in Cuba in 2012, covering such materials as Kozer’s Jewish heritage, his Cuban childhood and ongoing connection to the Island, Buddhist and East Asian traditions of spiritual practice, his everyday life in Florida with Guadalupe, ageing, illness, and the shadow of death. Irony and humor are there as well, and to read these poems is to be in the presence of the full seriousness of poetry and its playfulness, its ability to undercut all pretensions.
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Overview

An English translation from one of Latin America’s most distinguished poets.
 
José Kozer is one of the most influential contemporary Cuban poets working today. A key figure in the neobaroque movement within contemporary Latin American poetry, he is one of only three Cubans to ever win the Pablo Neruda Prize given by the Neruda Foundation in Chile. He is the author of close to ninety books, including Este judío de números y letras, Bajo este cien, La garza sin sombras, Carece de causa, and Y del esparto la invariabilidad. Kozer is also noteworthy as a key poet of the Cuban diaspora, having left Cuba in 1960 and residing ever since in the United States.

Of Such a Nature/Índole is a bilingual edition translated into English by Peter Boyle. In addition, Boyle provides an extensive introduction placing Kozer’s work in a critical context.

The Spanish word “índole” can be translated as: “a type,” “a sort,” or “that sort of thing.” The title, Índole, therefore suggests that the poems gathered in this collection, are all instances of specific types of situations, things, or experiences. Kozer has gathered a collection of poems about everyday life—cleaning one’s dentures, a woman leaning over a bowl of oatmeal, a salamander glimpsed while eating breakfast—but always with death not far away.

Of Such a Nature/Índole is a remarkable collection of poems published in Cuba in 2012, covering such materials as Kozer’s Jewish heritage, his Cuban childhood and ongoing connection to the Island, Buddhist and East Asian traditions of spiritual practice, his everyday life in Florida with Guadalupe, ageing, illness, and the shadow of death. Irony and humor are there as well, and to read these poems is to be in the presence of the full seriousness of poetry and its playfulness, its ability to undercut all pretensions.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780817391676
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
Publication date: 04/03/2018
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 240
File size: 1 MB

About the Author

José Kozer was born in Cuba and moved to New York, where he taught Spanish language and literature at Queens College, CUNY, for over thirty years. He currently resides in Hallandale, Florida, writing poems and reading as he pleases.

Peter Boyle is an Australian poet and translator of poetry. In 2013 he received the NSW Premier’s Prize for literary translation. As a poet he is the author of seven collections, most recently Ghostspeaking and Towns in the Great Desert.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

Véase como a fin de cuentas acaba en empate

Ah Shelley, no doy con la Mente Universal, las
Wherein it is seen how, when all's said and done, it comes out a draw

Ah Shelley, I don't encounter the Universal Mind, the
Véase como el amoroso hijo no olvida la presencia del padre

Heno,
boca: soy equino, res. Hace treinta años que
violetas
amapolas (verás se te ponen los ojos a
conciliar el sueño al pie de la Roca donde reposan Rebeca Sara Ana
una hilera van y
de hecatombes.
hurtadillas del tremedal,
pozas del camino a

¿Roma, Jerusalén, Santiago? En el camino a
y para siempre me siento a

lo de siempre, leer letras góticas, canturrear
y la duración de mis arcadas.

Wherein it is seen how a loving son doesn't forget the presence of the father

Hay,
mouth: I am equine, cattle. It's thirty years since my father
violets
poppies (you'll see they make your eyes pop right out)
to sleep at the foot of the Rock where rest Rebecca Sara Ana Jacob
a thread the coming and going of insects (carnelian tourmaline jade):
hecatombs.
the seething quagmire and one by one give up my illusions, things unreal have
puddles along the road to

Rome, Jerusalem, Santiago? On the road to my new
and for ever I
the same old same old, read gothic script, sing sotto voce
and the duration of my retching.

Véase como el oficial de marina no nos revela su vida secreta

Cinco minutos deshaciendo el nudo, soltó las
Rema. Alza los remos, la vertical (chorrea) al
Marino. Toda una vida secreta. Permaneció
y tencas,
Wherein it is seen how the navy officer does not reveal his secret life to us

Five minutes untying the knot, he cast off, the boat moved
He rows. He lifts the oars, the upright one (drips) in the
A sailor. An entire life kept secret. He has remained a
and tench,
(Continues…)



Excerpted from "Of Such a Nature / Índole"
by .
Copyright © 2012 José Kozer.
Excerpted by permission of The University of Alabama Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Table of Contents

Contents Acknowledgments Introduction - Peter Boyle Véase como a fin de cuentas acaba en empate / Wherein it isseen how, when all’s said and done, it comes out a draw Véase como el amoroso hijo no olvida la presencia del padre/ Wherein it is seen how a loving son doesn’t forget the presence of the father Véase como el oficial de marina no nos revela su vida secreta /Wherein it is seen how the navy officer does not reveal his secret life to us Véase como siempre acaba en lo mismo / Wherein it is seen how it always ends up the same Véase como siempre soterrado en mí hay un judío / Wherein itis seen how buried always inside me is a Jew Véase como todo tiene su solución / Wherein it is seen how everything has its solution Véase cuánto ocurre a una mujer a solas en un par de horas /Wherein it is seen how much happens in a few hours to a woman on her own Véase desde mi punto de vista / Wherein it’s seen from my point of view Véase desde una sola perspectiva / Wherein it is seen from a single perspective Véase lo que se escribe escuchando a Górecki, leyendo aMandelstam / Wherein we see what gets written listening to Gorecki while reading Mandelstam Véase si todo lo que se dice a continuación aclara algo / Wherein it is seen whether all that’s said later clarifies anything Véase, hasta para un chino, la imposibilidad de alcanzar laescritura / Wherein it’s seen how, even for someone Chinese, it’s impossible to understand writing Véase como se alcanza la felicidad con un poco de imaginación/ Wherein it’s seen how happiness is achieved with a little imagination Véase como después de esto a ésta ya no la vuelvo a ver / Wherein it’s seen how, once this is gone, I don’t see it again Véase como el convaleciente sienta la pauta de su propio final /Wherein it is seen how the convalescent sets the pattern of his own ending Véase como el durmiente constata las piezas que componen alfinal el sueño / Wherein it is seen how the sleeper verifies the elements that in the end make up his dream Véase como el soñador descubre que el suyo es el mejor de losmundos posibles / Wherein it is seen how the dreamer discovers his is the best of all possible worlds Véase como en el tránsito nos vemos sometidos todavía a lospensamientos / Wherein it is seen how even in the transitwe are prey to thoughts Véase como la muerte se desdobla en una mariposa de luz /Wherein it is seen how death opens out in a moth Véase como una joven no tan joven se pone a esperar amores /Wherein it’s seen how a young but not so young woman gets ready to wait for lovers Véase como unos metros de tierra colorada contribuyen al orden /Wherein it is seen how a few meters of red soil contribute toorder Véase como, como dice el refrán, nunca es tarde si la dicha, etc./ Wherein it is seen how, as the saying goes, if something is great it’s worth the . . . Véase con qué sencillez se puede vivir en ciertos lugares /Wherein it is seen how simply one can live in certain places Véase en que estado de sobreexcitación se encuentra el tiempo /Wherein time is seen getting overexcited Véase, como dice Eduardo Espina, que todo es mental / Wherein it is seen how, as Eduardo Espina says, it’s all in the mind Véase como reencarnar no vale la pena / Wherein it is seen how reincarnation isn’t worth the trouble Devastación / Devastation Dos Índoles, una Devastación / Two Indoles, a Devastation De la nación / Of the nation Acta / Acta
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