Helene Cardona's Blog - Posts Tagged "bilingual-poetry"

Michel Cazenave reviews Le Songe de mes Âmes Animales / Dreaming My Animal Selves (Salmon Poetry) in Recours au poème:

Notre relation au monde

http://www.recoursaupoeme.fr/chroniqu...

Life in Suspension (Salmon Poetry, 2016) just won the Readers Favorite Award in Poetry!
It is a 2016 Readers' Favorite Gold Medal Winner in Poetry!
"This is a collection of poetry to be savored slowly and enjoyed again and again."
—Readers' Favorite, 5 Star Review
“You listen to the silence
drawn on the ashes of ancient sacrifices.”
From Life in Suspension: La Vie Suspendue (Salmon Poetry)
“I now wear the memory of nothingness
a piece of white sail wrapped like second skin.”
― Helene Cardona, Life in Suspension: La Vie Suspendue

Birnam Wood / El Bosque de Birnam (Salmon Poetry, 2018) is reviewed by Rustin Larson in The Iowa Source:
https://www.iowasource.com/2018/06/29...
"In years, I have not read a poetry more expansive, gripping, and beautiful for the true music of language. I have been enthusiastically revitalized by the recent encounter with the poetry of José Manual Cardona, masterfully translated by his daughter, poet Hélène Cardona. In her hands, Birnam Wood sings to us in a rendering that is lush and passionate." —Rustin Larson, The Iowa Source

"Birnam Wood" (Salmon Poetry), my translation from Spanish of "El Bosque de Birnam" (Consell Insular d'Eivissa, Ibiza, Spain) by José Manuel Cardona, is in World Literature Today’s 75 Notable Translations of 2018!
http://ow.ly/ab5g30mWAUt

Birnam Wood (José Manuel Cardona translation, Salmon Poetry) wins the 2022 NYC Big Book Award! Thank you #GabbyBookAwards

Probably the best poetry collection I’ve read all year! A passionate collection. Gorgeous! —Bonnie Hearn Hill’s Great Day Book Club’s Book of the Month

The human condition, exile, love and death, freedom and fate, renunciation and resignation, the homeland of Ibiza and the diaspora are themes dominating Birnam Wood. A very clear thematic unity is discernible in the work of José Manuel Cardona: an unflinching look at identity through heightened language. These poems form part of a major on-going tradition in Spanish poetry. His work is marked by a predilection for the classical Castilian hendecasyllable as well as free verse, and by a strong interest in social themes.
The book reflects a social conscience and expresses great pain and love, in particular the poet’s love for his native island of Ibiza. It is also filled with literary influences. Its title, El bosque de Birnam, is a metaphor drawn from Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Birnam Wood speaks against abuse of power and for overthrowing all illegitimate governments. Lady Macbeth is foretold that she will have cause for worry when the Birnam Wood rises and marches against her, yet she does not heed the warning. Franco’s rise to power after a military coup launched a Civil War against a republic democratically elected in peace. Birnam Wood stands for resistance to illegitimate and illegal regimes.

BETWEEN LONGINGS FOR WHAT WAS AND THE EPIPHANIES OF THE BEYOND: A REVIEW OF HÉLÈNE CARDONA’S LIFE IN SUSPENSION:
https://www.theantonymmag.com/between...

Life in Suspension: La Vie Suspendue

"Such yearning towards the divine in Cardona’s poetic voice is reinforced by a proclivity towards enchantment and mysticism."