By Pablo Neruda, with English translations by Donald D. Walsh: The Mountain and the River, Poverty, Little America, from the collection The Captain’s Verses (Los Versos del Capitan). New Directions Publishing, bilingual edition, 1988. Chilean poet Pablo Neruda is regarded as one of the greatest poets to have ever lived. (English | Spanish)
Continue reading →By Frederico Garcia Lorca | Translation by A. S. Kline | Paintings by Gabriel Alix | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Frederico Garcia Lorca describes the lullabies of Spain in their cultural contexts and with a singular respect for children’s appreciation of abstraction. One lullaby from the region of Burgos is reminiscent of Haiti’s “Dodo Titit.”
Continue reading →By Michael Leunig, Spring Diary of a Small, Brown Bird | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. The poem below is a favorite of mine and the only one I’ve found so far that describes falling in love entirely from the point of view of an animal. From a collection by Leunig titled: Short Notes from the Long History of Happiness (Penguin Books Australia, Ltd, 1996).
Continue reading →By Rene Depestre. The Poet, The Final Degree of Exile, Consciences in Bloom: three offerings from the poetry collection In a State of Poetry (En Etat de Poesie, Les Editeurs Francais Reunis, Paris, 1980). (French, with English | French bio)
Continue reading →“Le baiser d’une mère” | Commentary by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Before I could speak or even breathe, my mother, with a broad smile, read this poem to me. I copy it here from a version she wrote from memory. Based on the style, some of the phrases, and her fondness for Oswald Durand, I think it is his. (French | English)
Continue reading →Leopold Senghor was a Senegalese poet and statesman who served as his country’s first president from 1960 to 1980. (English | French | Spanish)
Continue reading →Peter Vinthagen Simpson and staff, The Local. Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer, who was on Thursday named the 2011 Nobel Literature Prize laureate, has published a relatively small body of work, often addressing themes of death, history and nature. Here is an English translation of a short poem entitled “National Insecurity,” followed by a brief bibliography.
Continue reading →A Poem by Derek Walcott. Derek Walcott is a writer and painter from St. Lucia. He was born in 1930. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1992. This poem is from his latest volume of poetry, titled White Egrets (2010).
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