Xeixa: Fourteen Catalan Poets

by Marlon L Fick (Translator), Francisca Esteve (Editor)

During the post-civil war era, General Francisco Franco's fascist government forbade the people of Spain's Catalonia region from speaking, reading, and writing in Catalan, a crime punishable by imprisonment or execution. Throughout these years, the work of Catalan poets could only be found via the underground. Marlon L. Fick and Francisca Esteve traveled to meet each of the poets featured in this anthology, embarking on the long road of joy, pain, and friendship that is the work of translation. These fourteen poets, like fourteen blackbirds, provide keen angles of perception in beautiful and lyrical poetry, sometimes ecstatic, sometimes nostalgic, and always engaging, until now almost entirely unknown to U.S readers.

Genres: Poetry

174 pages, Paperback

Published November 1, 2018

Reviews

[Amanda Little · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love that Fick and Esteve have worked to preserve an endangered species of sorts. This book is hard for me to review. Some poets spoke to me more than others (a cultural difference?). I am absolutely in love with Joan Margarit's style and Teresa Pascual's and Josep Piera's poignancy. Also, not knowing Catalan, I am not able to judge the translation; however, the poetry as presented in English is rhythmic and enticing, striking images and evoking emotional response as good poetry should.