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Gemelas del sueño / The Twins, the Dream
This innovative project in poetry translation serves as a model for both cross-cultural interpretation and individual poetic exchange by authors. Two internationally recognized poets, Ursula Le Guin of the United States and Diana Bellessi of Argentina, have translated each other's works as a means of bridging cultural gaps and promoting cross-cultural and bilingual understanding. After years of working together and perfecting their translations of each other's poems, both Le Guin and Bellessi are now ready to issue their works in this composite anthology.
- GenresPoetry
225 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1996
7 people are currently reading
107 people want to read
About the author
Ursula K. Le Guin
1,044 books30.1k followersUrsula K. Le Guin published twenty-two novels, eleven volumes of short stories, four collections of essays, twelve books for children, six volumes of poetry and four of translation, and has received many awards: Hugo, Nebula, National Book Award, PEN-Malamud, etc. Her recent publications include the novel Lavinia, an essay collection, Cheek by Jowl, and The Wild Girls. She lived in Portland, Oregon.
She was known for her treatment of gender (The Left Hand of Darkness, The Matter of Seggri), political systems (The Telling, The Dispossessed) and difference/otherness in any other form. Her interest in non-Western philosophies was reflected in works such as "Solitude" and The Telling but even more interesting are her imagined societies, often mixing traits extracted from her profound knowledge of anthropology acquired from growing up with her father, the famous anthropologist, Alfred Kroeber. The Hainish Cycle reflects the anthropologist's experience of immersing themselves in new strange cultures since most of their main characters and narrators (Le Guin favoured the first-person narration) are envoys from a humanitarian organization, the Ekumen, sent to investigate or ally themselves with the people of a different world and learn their ways.
She was known for her treatment of gender (The Left Hand of Darkness, The Matter of Seggri), political systems (The Telling, The Dispossessed) and difference/otherness in any other form. Her interest in non-Western philosophies was reflected in works such as "Solitude" and The Telling but even more interesting are her imagined societies, often mixing traits extracted from her profound knowledge of anthropology acquired from growing up with her father, the famous anthropologist, Alfred Kroeber. The Hainish Cycle reflects the anthropologist's experience of immersing themselves in new strange cultures since most of their main characters and narrators (Le Guin favoured the first-person narration) are envoys from a humanitarian organization, the Ekumen, sent to investigate or ally themselves with the people of a different world and learn their ways.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 20, 2015
Ship. I see the prow only, and half a white sail.
A place between day and night, the sea.
A place without motion.
When the eastern sky takes fire, it whiteness
blinds. It becomes invisible. It sails the other side
of the sea.
Years go by.
One night I untie the boat moored among the boulders
of the bay. I put to sea.
The silence is unbroken
even by the crystal of the oars in the water.
I'm close. She appears on the bridge
haloed with her own darkness and her mane of hair.
She looks at me. The ship's figurehead breaks loose,
skimming across the air. It shatters on my breast.
[...]
Moonlight on the water
showed it vivid against the sky.
Further back, she was watching me.
She began to sing a song. Worn out by
love, by terror, I knew her voice was creating
the secret half of the world.
We were sailing through a sea of sand.
Ghostly red sunlight stained the nimbus
of dust that followed the ship. A sky of gold
without a cloud, without a bird to give life.
She stands erect on the bridge, her
will alone drives us across the desert.
She makes a bare tree grow green
for me. I know it is a gift,
a clear shade that reminds me
of half my origin. Then we cross
the threshold. The sign of her silence
became silence; softly the shining
of the darkness devoured me.
Memory:
vast holdings,
my inheritance a crumb?
-I've lost the memory.
The Northen Lights unfold
across dark silk.
A place between day and night, the sea.
A place without motion.
When the eastern sky takes fire, it whiteness
blinds. It becomes invisible. It sails the other side
of the sea.
Years go by.
One night I untie the boat moored among the boulders
of the bay. I put to sea.
The silence is unbroken
even by the crystal of the oars in the water.
I'm close. She appears on the bridge
haloed with her own darkness and her mane of hair.
She looks at me. The ship's figurehead breaks loose,
skimming across the air. It shatters on my breast.
[...]
Moonlight on the water
showed it vivid against the sky.
Further back, she was watching me.
She began to sing a song. Worn out by
love, by terror, I knew her voice was creating
the secret half of the world.
We were sailing through a sea of sand.
Ghostly red sunlight stained the nimbus
of dust that followed the ship. A sky of gold
without a cloud, without a bird to give life.
She stands erect on the bridge, her
will alone drives us across the desert.
She makes a bare tree grow green
for me. I know it is a gift,
a clear shade that reminds me
of half my origin. Then we cross
the threshold. The sign of her silence
became silence; softly the shining
of the darkness devoured me.
Memory:
vast holdings,
my inheritance a crumb?
-I've lost the memory.
The Northen Lights unfold
across dark silk.
November 30, 2025
Hay algo tan íntimo, tan rozando lo erótico, en leer estos poemas traducidos por dos que se conocieron y se hicieron amigas por -y en- su escritura. Se dicen "mí puma dorado" y "tu osita vieja" y se aman y se agradecen "por el regalo de tu poesía y tu corazón". Los poemas son todos increíbles, y la experiencia de leer mano a mano original y traducción, sabiendo que quien traduce conoce bien de cerca a quien escribe, es bellísima. Tan sólo un sueño.
Lo leí prestado, una edición vieja y muy difícil de conseguir. Me gustó tanto que sin haberlo terminado compré en preventa la edición que acaba de sacar Rara Avis.
Lo leí prestado, una edición vieja y muy difícil de conseguir. Me gustó tanto que sin haberlo terminado compré en preventa la edición que acaba de sacar Rara Avis.
July 22, 2023
te amo ukl
May 20, 2016
Este libro lo compré cuando apenas conocía a UKLG, vi el libro en una pila de saldos y como conocía la autora (y salía 2 pesos) lo compré porque no sabía (en ese entonces) que escribía poesía.
Lo que recuerdo (lo leí hace 15 años) era que me gustó a pesar que casi nunca leía poesía (y no sé si es el primer libro de poesía que leí)
Tengo que releerlo, es corto.
Lo que recuerdo (lo leí hace 15 años) era que me gustó a pesar que casi nunca leía poesía (y no sé si es el primer libro de poesía que leí)
Tengo que releerlo, es corto.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews