How to survive hope

by Esdras Parra, Jamie Berrout (Translator)

With its thirty interconnected poems, this book is a relatively brief work in contrast to the monumental two hundred pages of her first poetry book Este suelo secreto (1995). But here her poems feel less restrained than before, like she's allowing herself more room after her two previous, more tightly controlled poetry books.

Whereas in Este suelo secreto Parra employed a sort of second person experimental sonnet form, which she would adhere to closely for a number of pages then rupture at the next turn with a two line poem or one that explodes in fragments across the page, and whereas in Antigüedad del frío (2000) she worked with lines that were longer, almost prose-like, written now in first person and more connected by meaning and by proximity, in Aún no we feel at once closer to her than before, owing to her consistent use of a first person narrative voice full of questions and longing, even as her experimentation with visual space – by scattering words and pieces of lines across the page, by using clipped, quick stanzas – opens up distance between Parra and the reader and gives us another world, a new dimension, of readings. Approaching this new dimension, we may find ourselves asking: How should we read these poems on the page, in what order or direction, and what are these blank spaces, what is missing on the page, what of ourselves do we need to add?

Genres: Poetry, LGBT, Transgender

39 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Esdras Parra was a Venezuelan writer, poet. She was a founding editor of the literary magazine Imagen. She was born in 1939 in Santa Cruz de Mora, Venezuela and died in 2004. Parras began her career writing short stories and later wrote poetry. Her poetry has been translated into English by Jamie Berrout.

Reviews

[Nathaniel]

“Qué significa ese eco
cuya magnificencia visita a la noche

ese eco recorre el oro y lo mantiene de pie

el eco termina al final del muro
donde el aire no entra

¿cómo caminar en dirección a la tierra?
¿cómo calmar el dolor de los bosques?

una acción impensable para el abismo

allí el eco se desgarra bajo la tormenta

todo el eco recogido en la llama

el eco en declive
la noche apoyada en el trueno.”

(p. 25)

[erika]

''one must press firmly against the vertebrae / to introduce a dream inside the bones.''

''If the earth exists / it is to establish / the distance of the stars.''

[Emily]

Part of my reading challenge for this year is to read fewer books by straight, white men from America/Britain, so this translated book of poetry by a trans woman of colour from Venezuela seemed like a good place to start! This might be because it's a translated work, or because my own personal experiences are so different, but honestly I struggled with understanding many of the poems, especially in the beginning. Regardless, there is something reaching and beautiful about them, and very abstract. There were a few poems in particular that I really loved, He atribuido a los pantanos, Este es mi pasado, and Suprimir el verano. All in all, a very worthwhile read

[leah the rock johnson]

stunning stunning stunning