Artikel
Editorial: October 2006
29 september 2006
Bullets were flying
People were dying.
Another mass uprising? (‘Along Samora Machel’)
and
I miss the stretching space
That was usurped,
By high-rise glass buildings. (‘Concrete and Plastic’)
I wish I could read the Shona originals since Clement Chihota makes a good case in his supporting essay for the impossibility of complete translation of this work given its specific cultural references. Still, the English translations made by the poet himself provide enough of an idea.
Croatia brings an “island poet”, Andriana Škunca, into focus. Her home island of Pag is her unique poetic project and she continues to chart and deconstruct the topography and topology of the island in her verse. It is a complicated hermetic project but the results are impressive.
José Tolentino Mendonça from Portugal is an interesting counterpoint. Also an islander, this time from Madeira, his poetry is a vehicle for leaving behind an island mentality, for reaching out to the Other, as Richard Zenith writes. Mendoça’s poems are intelligent, wise and accessible:
Nothing in the world is closer
but those to whom we deny our words
love, certain infirmities, the purest presence
hear what the woman dressed in sunlight says
when she walks on top of the trees (‘The Purest Presence’).
Like Škunca, Japan’s Hiromi Ito is also interested her own environment but her poetry has a different slant. As an emigrant, she is interested in the movement of peoples and cultural exchange, the blurring of boundaries of the settler, something she conjures extensively in her epic poem, ‘Wild Grass upon a Riverbank’, part of which is included here. The poems are supplemented by an autobiographical piece by Ito herself and a review by Nobuaki Tochigi.
The Colombian poet, Hugo Jamioy Juagibioy, has an interesting background. He belongs to the Kamuentsa Kabëng Kamëntsa Biyá people whose principal activities are agriculture and handicrafts. His poems are directly related to Shamanistic experiences and are written under the influence of yage (ayahuasca), a traditional herb which induces a transcendental state.
The two other Colombian poets of this issue are rather more mainstream. Luis Eduardo Rendón is young urban poet with great talent for irony, and the classic writer, Jota Mario Arbeláez, is the main exponent of the nadaísta movement, a group of rebellious poets and writers who revolutionized Colombian literature in the 1960s. His poetry is wonderful.
Enjoy this issue brimming with far-reaching world poetry and informative background material.
October sees a special number of PIW with six countries featuring new material and an increased number of essays, interviews and reviews. We welcome Ukraine back to the magazine - with a bang! Their chosen poet is Viktor Neborak, member of the very popular Bu-Ba-Bu performance group who rose to fame in the 1980s and 1990s. The Bu-Ba-Bus were a trio of poets whose component syllables stood for their stylistic inspirations – Bu – burlesque, ba – balahan (farce) and bu – buffoonery. You can imagine what sort of stage performances they gave. Neborak’s poems are fascinating even without the support act, and the editor has also provided an interesting assortment of supplementary material. There's a spectacularly unconventional introduction to Neborak's work by his American translator, an essay by one of Neborak’s fellow group members and an informative piece on Ukranian literary identity today.
Zimbabwe introduces one of its better known poets, Ignatius T. Mabasa, who brings glimpses of life in his country today : Bullets were flying
People were dying.
Another mass uprising? (‘Along Samora Machel’)
and
I miss the stretching space
That was usurped,
By high-rise glass buildings. (‘Concrete and Plastic’)
I wish I could read the Shona originals since Clement Chihota makes a good case in his supporting essay for the impossibility of complete translation of this work given its specific cultural references. Still, the English translations made by the poet himself provide enough of an idea.
Croatia brings an “island poet”, Andriana Škunca, into focus. Her home island of Pag is her unique poetic project and she continues to chart and deconstruct the topography and topology of the island in her verse. It is a complicated hermetic project but the results are impressive.
José Tolentino Mendonça from Portugal is an interesting counterpoint. Also an islander, this time from Madeira, his poetry is a vehicle for leaving behind an island mentality, for reaching out to the Other, as Richard Zenith writes. Mendoça’s poems are intelligent, wise and accessible:
Nothing in the world is closer
but those to whom we deny our words
love, certain infirmities, the purest presence
hear what the woman dressed in sunlight says
when she walks on top of the trees (‘The Purest Presence’).
Like Škunca, Japan’s Hiromi Ito is also interested her own environment but her poetry has a different slant. As an emigrant, she is interested in the movement of peoples and cultural exchange, the blurring of boundaries of the settler, something she conjures extensively in her epic poem, ‘Wild Grass upon a Riverbank’, part of which is included here. The poems are supplemented by an autobiographical piece by Ito herself and a review by Nobuaki Tochigi.
The Colombian poet, Hugo Jamioy Juagibioy, has an interesting background. He belongs to the Kamuentsa Kabëng Kamëntsa Biyá people whose principal activities are agriculture and handicrafts. His poems are directly related to Shamanistic experiences and are written under the influence of yage (ayahuasca), a traditional herb which induces a transcendental state.
The two other Colombian poets of this issue are rather more mainstream. Luis Eduardo Rendón is young urban poet with great talent for irony, and the classic writer, Jota Mario Arbeláez, is the main exponent of the nadaísta movement, a group of rebellious poets and writers who revolutionized Colombian literature in the 1960s. His poetry is wonderful.
Enjoy this issue brimming with far-reaching world poetry and informative background material.
© Michele Hutchison
Sponsors
Partners
LantarenVenster – Verhalenhuis Belvédère