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The New World Written: Selected Poems
A lyrical collection of the finest poems by a leading Mexican poet, superbly translated for English readers
“A literary event. . . . [Baranda’s] work provides a bestiary as fierce as those found in the Odyssey , Beowulf , or The Waste Land .”—Merrill Kaitz, Arts Fuse
“A valuable collection . . . a metaphysical and philosophical luminosity of language that immerses the reader in cycles of life, death, and a quest for understanding what it means to be able to perceive.”—Susan Smith Nash, World Literature Today
The poetry of María Baranda is a haunting homage to the natural world, transcendent in scope, attentive to the particular, and acutely attuned to the mystery of being. Absorbed by nature’s otherness, Baranda seeks to inhabit the voices of the wind, of wings, night, day, and perhaps most keenly, water. These lyrical verses turn repeatedly to the longings and griefs of “What is that God / To be praised with all our sadness / If not love / Or at least the wonder / Of being a body full of blood,” Baranda asks.
Drawing on epics such as the Aeneid and Beowulf , the mystical verses of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, and writers who engage the landscape of shore and sea, from Daniel Defoe to Dylan Thomas, this sweeping collection brings together the finest poems of one of today’s most powerful and innovative Mexican writers.
“A literary event. . . . [Baranda’s] work provides a bestiary as fierce as those found in the Odyssey , Beowulf , or The Waste Land .”—Merrill Kaitz, Arts Fuse
“A valuable collection . . . a metaphysical and philosophical luminosity of language that immerses the reader in cycles of life, death, and a quest for understanding what it means to be able to perceive.”—Susan Smith Nash, World Literature Today
The poetry of María Baranda is a haunting homage to the natural world, transcendent in scope, attentive to the particular, and acutely attuned to the mystery of being. Absorbed by nature’s otherness, Baranda seeks to inhabit the voices of the wind, of wings, night, day, and perhaps most keenly, water. These lyrical verses turn repeatedly to the longings and griefs of “What is that God / To be praised with all our sadness / If not love / Or at least the wonder / Of being a body full of blood,” Baranda asks.
Drawing on epics such as the Aeneid and Beowulf , the mystical verses of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, and writers who engage the landscape of shore and sea, from Daniel Defoe to Dylan Thomas, this sweeping collection brings together the finest poems of one of today’s most powerful and innovative Mexican writers.
- GenresPoetry
272 pages, Hardcover
Published June 22, 2021
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About the author
María Baranda
71 books24 followersMaría Baranda es una poetisa, narradora y traductora. Ganó el Premio Nacional de Poesía Efraín Huerta 1995 por su obra Los memoriosos. Fue embajadora de Embajadora de la Literatura Infantil y Juvenil de la FILIJ 2017.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 27, 2023
I am an earnest fan of Baranda's at this point, and so reading this selection was a bit like glancing through the evolution of genius. Seeing selections from all of her past work - what a delight.
Displaying 1 of 1 review