Forbidden Words: Selected Poetry of Eugenio de Andrade FROM THE PUBLISHER
Award-winning poetry in a bilingual edition, by Portugal's best-known living poet.
Eugénio de Andrade is the author of twenty-nine volumes of poetry as well as numerous children's books, collections of prose writings, and translations into Portuguese of Sappho, Federico García Lorca, and Yannis Ritsos. Forbidden Words: Selected Poetry of Eugénio de Andrade, is based on the poet's own retrospective Antologia Breve ("Brief Anthology") of 1998, expanded and edited for English-speaking readers by his longtime translator, Alexis Levitin.
Marguerite Yourcenar spoke of "the well-tempered clavier" of Andrade's poems, Gregory Rabassa of his "succint lyricism...summing things up in a moment, much like haiku." His verse, deeply rooted in the rural landscapes of his childhood and in the ancient Greek lyric, have the clarity of light on sand, radiating pagan intimations of immortality.
Author Biography: Eugénio de Andrade was born in 1923 in Povoa de Atalaia, a small village in Portugal close to the Spanish border. He published his first poem at the age of sixteen, his first book three years later. He has received every literary prize his country offers, as well as several international ones, including, by acclaim, the Portuguese language's most prestigious award, the Camoes Prize (2000), among whose previous winners are Jorge Amado and José Saramago. Alexis Levitin, a professor of English at the State University of New York-Plattsburgh, has translated nine previous books of Andrade's poetry. His translation of Soulstorm, stories by Clarice Lispector, was published by New Directions in 1988.
FROM THE CRITICS
Collete Inez
Levitin gives us the brilliance of Andrade's poetry in rich and musical language.
C. W. Truesdale
It is a sheer delight to come across the poems of de Andrade in Levitin's sensitive and lyrical translations.
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