Silent Letter

Whyte Jaume Subirana Christopher

Description

Award-winning poet, translator, and academic, Jaume Subirana is one of Catalonia's most treasured poets, winning some of its most prestigious prizes for his poetry and essays. In an eloquent translation from accomplished poet and translator Christopher Whyte, The Silent Letter showcases Subirana's sharp observations, delicate eye for detail, stunningly beautiful images, and poignant suspension of the moment.

Sujets

• Poetry

Informations

• Publié par: Fum d'Estampa Press
• Date de parution: 15 janvier 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781913744144
• Langue: English

Extrait

jaume subirana ( Barcelona , 1963) is a writer, translator, and professor of Literature at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra. He has published seven collections of poetry, the latest being La hac/The Silent Letter . In 1988 he won Catalan poetry’s most prestigious prize, the Carles Riba. In 2011 , he was awarded the Gabriel Ferrater prize for Una pedra sura . He has published various essays, three volumes of award-winning diaries, and has translated Billy Collins, Seamus Heaney (with Pauline Ernest), Ted Kooser (with Miquel Àngel Llauger), Berta Piñán, Gary Snyder (with José Luis Regojo), R.S. Thomas and the children’s poetry of Robert Louis Stevenson into Catalan. He is currently the vice-president of PEN Català. When he can, he enjoys listening to music, going fishing, daydreaming, and travelling.
christopher whyte ( Glasgow , 1952) writes his own poetry in Scottish Gaelic, with his sixth collection Ceum air Cheum / Step by Step ( 2019 ) being nominated for two national awards. Between 1995 and 2000 he published four novels in English and he has translated into English the poetry of Rilke and Pasolini, as well as poets from Catalan, Croatian and Hungarian. Whyte is also known for his groundbreaking, innovative and at times controversial work researching and critiquing Scottish literature, with particular reference to literary theory, gender and queer studies. Whyte left a distinguished career as an academic in 2005 to devote himself entirely to writing. Currently he divides his time between Budapest and Prague.

the silent letter
jaume subirana
translated by christopher whyte

FUM D'ESTAMPA PRESS LTD. london - barcelona
This translation has been published in Great Britain by Fum d’Estampa Press Limited 2021
001 Copyright © Jaume Subirana Ortín, 2020 Rights ceded by Edicions 62 (www.edicions62.cat) Translation copyright © Christopher Whyte, 2020 Cover quote by Manuel Castaño, El Pais
The moral right of the author and translator has been asserted Set in Minion Pro
Printed and bound by TJ Books Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-9162939-9-1
Series design by ‘el mestre’ Rai Benach
All rights reserved.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not,
by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or
otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent
in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it
is published and without a similar condition including this
condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
This work was translated with the help of a grant from the Institut Ramon Llull.


contents

Nadir 15
i
After Rumi 20 84th Street 21 Chikudo 23 The Trees and Us 25 Fjord 27 The Silent Letter 29 The Rain Stops 31 Hotel (Still Life) 33 Indian Summer 35 Jonah by the Garonne 37 Bad Place 45 Buson in Venice 47 Memento Vivere 49 Ponte Storto 51 Fondamenta 53 Snow (Say Goodbye) 55 San Antolín de Beón 57 Boarding Pass 59 T ŷ Newydd 61 A Poem for Kathe 63 ii
Like That 67 Family Cinema 69 Guardians 71 Sketch 73 Tomorrow 75 December 77 Dusk 79 Show 81 Room 427 83 The Branch 85 Reading Andrade 87 Magnificat 89 Bothersome 91 Where I Watch Beth Departing... 93 In Procession 95 Day Approaches 97 Seventy Times Seven 99 Touching a Dead Writer 101 Roman Tombs 103 All That’s Solid 105 Five Letters (Aubade) 107
Acknowledgements 111
Translator’s Notes 113
Vita Nova, by Jordi Galves 115

the silent letter

Man, sometimes it takes you a long time to sound like yourself. miles davis

nadir
Pintor del cel i les estrelles, Van Gogh va escriure al seu germà: “És meu, en certa forma, el gira-sol”. Miro el cel i els meus versos: els reconec i sempre se m’escapen. Vull dir que no tinc res, em tenen, si de cas. En certa forma jo sóc seu. Dels gira-sols.


nadir
Painter of sky and stars, Van Gogh wrote to his brother: “In a certain way the sunflower is mine.” I look at the sky then at my poems: I recognise them, yet they constantly elude me. What I mean is, I own nothing - if anything, they own me. In a certain way I’m theirs - the sunflowers’.


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