Night Journey / / María Negroni.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Princeton University Press eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Negroni, María,
• MitwirkendeR: Twitty, Anne,
• TeilnehmendeR: Twitty, Anne.
• Place / Publishing House: Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2002]; ©2002
• Year of Publication: 2002
• Language: English
• Series: The Lockert Library of Poetry in Translation ; 50
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (144 p.)

One of South America's most celebrated contemporary poets takes us on a fantastic voyage to mysterious lands and seas, into the psyche, and to the heart of the poem itself. Night Journey is the English-language debut of the work that won María Negroni an Argentine National Book Award. It is a book of dreams--dreams she renders with surreal beauty that recalls the work of her compatriot Alejandra Pizarnik, with the penetrating subtlety of Borges and Calvino. In sixty-two tightly woven prose poems, Negroni deftly infuses haunting imagery with an ironic, personal spirituality. Effortlessly she navigates the nameless subject to the slopes of the Himalayas, to a bar in Buenos Aires, through war, from icy Scandinavian landscapes to the tropics, across seas, toward a cemetery in the wake of Napoleon's hearse, by train, by taxis headed in unrequested directions, past mirrors and birds, between life and death. Night Journey reflects a mastery of a traditional form while brilliantly expressing a modern condition: the multicultural, multifaceted individual, ever in motion. Displacement abounds: a "medieval tabard" where a pelvis should be, a "lipless grin," a "beach severed from the ocean." In one poem "nomadic cities" whisk past. In another, smiling cockroaches loom in a visiting mother's eyes. Anne Twitty, whose elegant translations are accompanied by the Spanish originals, remarks in her preface that the book's "indomitable literary intelligence" subdues an unspoken terror--helplessness. Yet, as observed by the angel Gabriel, the consoling voice of wisdom, only by accepting the journey for what it is can one discover its "hidden splendor," the "invisible center of the poem." As readers of this magnificent work will discover, this is a journey that, because its every fleeting image conjures a thousand words of fertile silence, can be savored again and again.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Kidnapped by the Inexorable -- Esqueletos Bajo El Cielo / Skeletons under the Sky -- La jaula en flor / Cage in Bloom -- Catástrofe / Catastrophe -- Ecuyère y militar / Equestrienne and Officer -- Los bosques de mármol / The Marble Forests -- La pérdida / Loss -- Gabriel / Gabriel -- Heráldica / Heraldry -- Van Gogh / Van Gogh -- The Great Watcher / The Great Watcher -- El espejo del alma / Mirror of the Soul -- La ciudad nómade / Nomadic City -- El padre / The Father -- Diálogo con Gabriel I / Dialogue with Gabriel I -- Lido / Lido -- La visita / The Visit -- La guía telefónica / The Telephone Book -- El mapa del Tiempo / The Map of Time -- Napoleón II / Napoleon II -- Los amantes / The Lovers -- Los ojos de Dios / The Eyes of God -- El caballo blanco / The White Horse -- El bebé / The Baby -- Las tres madonas / The Three Madonnas -- Tout cherche tout / Tout cherche tout -- Carta a Sèvres / Letter to Sèvres -- El diccionario infinito / The Infinite Dictionary -- Las ventanas del siglo / Windows on the Century -- Diálogo con Gabriel II / Dialogue with Gabriel II -- Los dos cielos / The Two Heavens -- Fata Morgana / Fata Morgana -- New Jersey / New Jersey -- Rosamundi / Rosamundi -- Encrucijada / Crossroads -- La ceguera / Blindness -- Midgard / Midgard -- La ropa / Clothes -- El diluvio / The Deluge -- Sleeping Beauty / Sleeping Beauty -- El viaje / The Journey -- Die Zeit / Die Zeit -- Diálogo con Gabriel III / Dialogue with Gabriel III -- Teoría de la luz / Theory of Light -- Los hilos del ser / Threads of Being -- Over Exposure / Over Exposure -- Eternidad / Eternity -- Los osos / The Bears -- El mundo no termina / The World Doesn't End -- Cuento de hadas / Fairytale -- Terra Incognita / Terra Incognita -- Peridural y despojo / Epidural and Plunder -- Hieros gamos / Hieros gamos -- Diálogo con Gabriel IV / Dialogue with Gabriel IV -- Simurgh / Simurgh -- El libro de los seres / The Book of Being -- The Book of Being / The Roof of the World -- El juego sin nombre / The Anonymous Game -- Hurqãlyã, ciudad peregrina / Hurqãlyã, Peregrine City -- Los cielos del otoño / Autumn Skies -- Teoría del buen morir / Theory of a Good Death -- Casandra / Cassandra -- Carta a mí misma / Letter to Myself -- Backmatter