The Translator's Diary

by Jon Pineda

WINNER OF THE 2007 GREEN ROSE PRIZE FOR POETRY  "In THE TRANSLATOR'S DIARY, where truth 'never survives its translation,' Jon Pineda composes a haunting elegy. His keen attention journeys through absence and presence, fragmentation and loss in memorable, riveting language"--Arthur Sze, winner of the National Book Award   "THE TRANSLATOR'S DIARY reminds us that one of poetry's necessary functions is translation--of literal experience and abstract emotion, the personal and shared. With beautiful formal precision, Pineda moves skillfully from couplets to sonnets to lyric sequence, carefully 'pressing syllables against the dark' in this timeless, poignant volume"--Claudia Emerson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize

Genres: Poetry

57 pages, Paperback

First published February 25, 2008

About the author

Jon Pineda's new novel Let's No One Get Hurt, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, won the 2019 Emyl Jenkins Sexton Literary Award for Fiction. He is the author of five other books and teaches at William & Mary.

Reviews

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh. This was lovely. The middle poem is moving but the entire collection is quiet and surprising at the same time.

[Tiffany Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really enjoying finding all these local authors with a big voice. Keep it up VA writers 🫶🏻

[Tina · Rating 2 out of 5]

What drew me into this collection was the very first, and very brief, poem entitled "Coma":

What if I told you
each time you whispered
my name it felt like a door
I could place a hand against,
feel how warm it was, as if
the world on the other side,
yours, was the one on fire?

I kept thinking about that poem for a day after I first read it. There are other gems in there, as well, but the quiet grace and longing of that first one was the height for me.

[Dana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've heard Jon Pineda's name for two years now and never read his books. When I saw he was coming for our Lit Fest this year, I finally read one, and it was lovely. His poems are beautiful, and the quiet restraint of them was easy to roll with.

[Paul]

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