Can anyone tell me if there is anything in English
translation by Cardenal since 1995?
Below is biographical detail given for a reading
he gave in New York City in late 1998. I'm not
a particular Michael Palmer fan, it seems a sort
of gamey escapist poetry. He's a big influence
on young Australian poet Emma Lew, however.
Niedecker is pretty interesting, and I too will be
looking up Weldon Kees.
Ernesto Cardenal is the author of more than 35 books in Spanish, a number of
which have been translated into English, including Flights of Victory, Zero
Hour, Homage to the American Indians, and With Walker in Nicaragua. He has
always considered poetry as a powerful agent for constructive social change
and his poetry gives voice to the voiceless, speaking out against
oppression. His English translation poetry volumes include Marilyn Monroe
and Other Poems (1965), The Psalms of Struggle and Liberation (1967), To
Live is to Love (1970), In Cuba (1974), Apocalypse and Other Poems (1977),
Nicaraguan New Time (1988), Cosmic Canticle (1993), and The Doubtful Strait
(1995). Choice magazine calls Cardenal "one of the world's major poets" who
"struggles to convince himself that the underlying force in the universe is
divine purpose rather than pure chance. For him, the politics of commitment
is essential the poetic discourse, just as love, the ultimate cohesive
principle, is necessary to preserve the oneness of creation."
Cardenal was born on January 20, 1925 in Grenada, Nicaragua. He studied in
Mexico and at Columbia University in the U.S., and with Thomas Merton at a
Trappist monastery in Kentucky in 1957. Nicaraguan dictactor Anastasio
Somoza declared Cardenal an outlaw in 1957 for his support of the Sandinista
movement. In 1965, he was ordained a priest and founded a Christian commune,
Solentiname. During the revolution, Cardenal served as a field chaplain for
the FSLN. After the Triumph, he served as Minister of Culture from 1979 to
1988 and promoted literary workshops throughout Nicaragua. At present he is
the Vice President of Casa de Las Tres Mundos, a literary and cultural
organization based in Managua.
It's probably good to start with Marilyn Monroe
and Other Poems (1965)... Check him out!
best
Hugh Tolhurst
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