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"João Cabral de Melo Neto is one of Brazil's most acclaimed poets, and this selection of his luminous, often surreal works reveals why. From his early days, Mr. Cabral has written poems that are marked by a captivating use of simple language. Avoiding ceremony and circumstance, they follow centuries-old paths rather than struggle to break new ground. While it is difficult to capture the sensuous flow of the original Portuguese, these translations . . . are remarkably true to the spirit of the originals." —New York Times Book Review
Brings together a representative selection of the work of one of Brazil’s most respected poets, including many poems published in English for the first time.
This bilingual anthology brings together a representative selection from more than a half century of this distinguished Brazilian poet's lifetime work. Along with previously translated poems are many others in English for the first time. The remarkable group of poets and translators includes Elizabeth Bishop, Alastair Reid, Galway Kinnell, Louis Simpson, and W. S. Merwin.
"[Cabral's work] will very likely come to be regarded as Brazil's most original contribution to 20th-century poetics." —Village Voice Literary Supplement
"[A] major poet . . . The poems are subtle and wise, the work of a man who has seen much of the world and who knows humanity."—The Hudson Review
"Cabral de Melo Neto is widely-recognized as Brazil's most significant post-WW II poet. Influential in leading the 'generation of '45' against exaggeration in the use of free verse, Cabral made his nation’s poetry more precise, less sentimental."—Publishers Weekly
From the Book:
A lucidity which sees everything,
as if by lamp -- or daylight,
and which, at nightfall, turns on
behind the eyelids the tooth
of a sharp and skinless light,
extreme and serving for nothing;
a light so lucid it fools you
into thinking you can do everything.
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Translator Djelal Kadir is Dolores K. and Walter Neustadt Jr. Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Oklahoma and editor of World Literature Today.
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