Like an Eye in the Hand of a Beggar

by Leopoldo María Panero

Poetry. Bilingual Edition. Translated from the Spanish by Arturo Mantecón. Introduction by Túa Blesa. "I am in awe of Leopoldo María Panero. Not since Isadore Ducasse has the Hispanic world delivered such a haunted portrait of hell, in such refined, articulate style. Panero is now in my gallery of decipherers of the unknown. He is proof that real poets might come from a specific place but ultimately have no country; they belong to language itself and Panero's language is sheer revelation."—Ilan Stavans

"If Panero's preoccupations—or his very life—remind one of any poet, it is Antonin Artaud. The same radical posture taken toward poetry and life, the same tremendous toll the world has levied on them. Hence the violence of the poems, hence the dark glow of their victory.—Alberto Blanco

"If there is one poet who has forged a new world with their vision and language, that poet would have to be Leopoldo María Panero. His work is striking in its originality, and Panero is the only living poet who reaches deep into the human experience and pulls out the entrails regarding the true state of the human condition. Arturo Mantecón's translation of Panero's poetry is the best possible introduction for the English reader to this incredible body of work. Bravo!"—Alejandro Murguía

282 pages, Paperback

First published May 8, 2013

About the author

Leopoldo María Panero es un poeta desarraigado, un hombre desclasado que trabaja con sus versos contra la sociedad y contra él mismo, un ser que sufre del complejo de autodestrucción y que transforma ese complejo, esa autodestrucción, en obra de arte. Un maldito, en definitiva. Leopoldo María Panero, aquejado de malditismo, se suicida a cámara lenta y, de esta manera, es capaz de hacer su obra con prisas, iluminada con destellos e impulsada, paradójicamente, por ese descenso hacia el fondo del abismo que, en realidad, busca truncar con violencia, dejar inacabada, esa misma obra. Panero, que busca la poesía en la abominación, reivindica como clave poética la máxima de Mallarmé: «La destruction fut ma Beatrice».