catalogue 2014: spanish, catalan, portuguese & basque poetry

spanish, catalan, portuguese & basquepoetry in translation

catalogue 2014

Pedro Serrano

PEATLANDStranslated by Anna Crowe, introduction by W.N. Herbert

The poems in the first full-length collection to be published in the UK by the acclaimed Mexican poet Pedro Serrano are taken from Despla-zamientos, a volume of selected poems which draws on all his collections since 1986. Chosen by both the poet and his accomplished translator, Anna Crowe, these poems are wide-ranging, passionate and linguisti-cally thrilling, together forming a beautifully-balanced introduction to Serrano’s work.

Here is a world of snakes and swallows, valleys and skyscrapers, wea-riness and love, an eclectic range of subjects that gives rise, not as one might expect to a sense of chaos, but ultimately to a unification of all things, so that the dung beetle, the scribe and the mermaid are all part of one entity.

Visible Poets

Spanish / English bilingual£10.99 paperback ISBN: 978-1906570-85-9

£13.99 hardback ISBN: 978-1906570-86-6

10% discount and free P&P in the UK from www.arcpublications.co.ukalso available in all major ebook formatsbulk orders: [email protected] | 01706 812338

Víctor Rodríguez Núñez

THAWtranslated by Katherine M. Hedeen

Thaw is a book-length sequence of décimas, ten-line strophes which are the quintessential stanza in Cuban popular poetry. Although at first they appear to be simple meditations on nature, they open out into a larger reflection on human experience and emotion, and on how the three interact. In Katherine Hedeen’s consummate translation, they shine as small gifts of vision or place that envelop the reader in their sensuous immediacy.

Rodríguez Núñez enjoys playing with symbols, allowing images to break out to offer intellectual puzzles and literary references. These po-ems dance between literal, metaphorical and physical worlds, upending any preconceptions on the part of the reader.

Arc Translations


£12.99 hardback ISBN: 978-1908376-04-6


Aguiló, Barberà, Forcano, Gorga, Julià, Torner

SIX CATALAN POETStranslated by Anna Crowe, edited by Pere Ballart

Six Catalan Poets features the work of six poets whose skilful and di-verse character represents the multi-faceted nature of recent Catalan poetry. Taken together, their work could not be more modern, compre-hensive or polyphonic: in the writing of all six, the reader will find poli-tics and history cohabiting with the intimate experience of love; learned allusion and popular image; stanzaic rigour and freedom of form; song to the land of birth and hymn to the voyage; doubt over the expressive possibilities of language alongside pride in the blazing word fuelled by enthusiasm or by anger.

The history of Catalan literature is a struggle for survival and, as such, its poetry continues to express the passion and vigour of a strident language calling to be heard.

New Voices from Europe & Beyond

Catalan / English bilingual£10.99 paperback ISBN: 978-1906570-60-6


Antônio Moura

SILENCE RIVERtranslated by Stefan Tobler, introduction by David Treece

Antônio Moura’s is a distinctive and compelling voice and this selection from three of his highly-acclaimed collections is striking evidence of the enduring power of poetry in early twenty-first century Brazil.

Writing in an idiom whose diction, attitude and philosophy of life is both moving and challenging, Moura has a facility of ‘speaking directly’ to his reader. He invites us to stop and dwell on suspended scenes, min-ute details, revelatory instants – exquisite still-lives – and to contem-plate both the material world and the human condition.

This is the first full-length book by a living Brazilian poet to be pub-lished in the UK, and Stefan Tobler’s sensitive and accomplished trans-lation does justice to the poetry of one of Brazil’s leading literary figures.

Visible Poets

Portuguese / English bilingual£9.99 paperback ISBN: 978-1906570-67-5

£12.99 hardback ISBN: 978-1906570-68-2

10% discount and free P&P in the UK from www.arcpublications.co.ukbulk orders: [email protected] | 01706 812338

Víctor Rodríguez Núñez

THE INFINITE’S ASHtranslated by Katherine M. Hedeen

Víctor Rodríguez Núñez is one of today’s most outstanding Cuban writ-ers, although he has lived and worked outside of the island for nearly two decades, first in Nicaragua and Colombia and, since 1995, in the USA. The present collection, based on his selected poems With a Strange Scent of World: First Anthology, 1978-1998 (Havana, 2004), offers a rep-resentative sample, as well as a rewriting, of his early poetic work.

In an interview, Rodríguez Núñez described his search for “a po-etry that is… participatory yet not political… communicative yet not explicit… dialogic yet not conversational, Cuban yet not essentially na-tionalist…” and in her introduction to this volume, Katherine Hedeen provides us with background detail that helps to set the poet’s work in context.

Arc Translations


£13.99 hardback ISBN: 978-1906570-06-4


Fernando Kofman

THE FLIGHTS OF ZARZAtranslated by Ian Taylor, introduction by Andrew Graham-Yooll

Kofman’s fourth collection, Zarza remueve (1992), was written in the scarred period following the return of democratic rule to Argentina af-ter seven years of brutal dictatorship and state terror that Kofman, a Jew, likened to Germany before and during the Second World War.

Although for many in these post-dictatorship years of spiralling in-flation and consumerism poetry appeared to be one of the last bastions of the ‘internal voice’, for Kofman the ‘new poetry of the 90s’ was a chance to express the divide between the past and the need to move on.

The Flights of Zarza follows the androgynous Zarza in his/her travels through Argentina and beyond. Its images, narrative and language are vigorous and direct, making for an exciting first encounter, in Ian Tay-lor’s accomplished translation, with this outstanding Argentinian poet.

Visible Poets


£12.99 hardback ISBN: 978-1904614-90-6


Eli Tolaretxipi

STILL LIFE WITH LOOPStranslated by Philip Jenkins, introduction by Robert Crawford

Born in San Sebastian, and still living and working there, the Basque poet Eli Tolaretxipi has published two collections of poetry in Spanish – Amor muerto naturaleza muerta (Past Love Still Life) and Los lazos del número (The Loops of the Figure). Although translated into French and Italian, she has had to wait until the publication of this volume for her poetry to appear in English, in a fine translation by Philip Jenkins.

Eli Tolaretxipi’s poetry has a rich sense of unease, the sense of un-ease we feel about love and perception. Her first collection draws on the language of the visual arts to portray the end of a failing relationship, while her second reflects on the nature of perception and poetry. Still Life with Loops, as its title suggests, is made up of work from both these collections.

Visible Poets


£12.99 hardback ISBN: 978-1904614-95-1


Arregi, Atxaga, Juaristi, Meabe, Uribe, Sarrionandia

SIX BASQUE POETStranslated by Amaia Gabantxo, edited by Mari Jose Olaziregi

The six poets included in this collection have played a defining role in the development of Basque-language poetry in the last thirty years, since the arrival of what we have come to refer to as the ‘democratic age’ in Spain and the Basque Country. They represent the diversity of voices and poetic schools that populate the contemporary Basque liter-ary scene.

Direct, moving and thought-provoking, this anthology gives us an insight into the preoccupations of a literary milieu which may be mar-ginalized by its use of an ancient language not spoken outside its terri-tory, but which is as powerful and original in its production as any of the literary centres in today’s Europe.

New Voices from Europe & Beyond

Basque / English bilingual£10.99 paperback ISBN: 978-1904614-26-5


Gabriel Ferrater

WOMEN AND DAYStranslated by Arthur Terry, introduction by Seamus Heaney

The Catalan poet, Gabriel Ferrater, is a poet of personal experience, who succeeded like no other in capturing the feeling of Catalan society both during and since the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). Although he came to poetry relatively late (he was 38 when his first collection was published), he was able to draw on a range of experience which many younger poets would have envied.

Rich in metaphor and imagery, Ferrater’s remarkable poetry is pre-sented in this volume in an equally remarkable translation by Arthur Terry, whose affinity with the poet is self-evident from the powerful po-etic ‘voice’ he creates in English. Seamus Heaney came under the spell of both Ferrater and Terry and his introduction to this volume is entic-ing and illuminating to any new reader of Ferrater.

Visible Poets

Catalan / English bilingual£8.99 paperback ISBN: 978-1900072-90-8


Arc Publications publishes contemporary poetry from new and established writers from the UK and abroad, specialising in the work of international poets writing in English and the work of overseas poets in translation.

All Arc’s translated titles are published in bilingual parallel text editions, with a preface by the translator to elucidate their approach to the work.

www.arcpublications.co.uk

catalogue 2014: spanish, catalan, portuguese & basque poetry

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anna crowe

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history of catalan literature

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