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The Ecco Anthology of International Poetry: An Acclaimed Collection of Modern Voices in English Translation
In this remarkable anthology, introduced and edited by Ilya Kaminsky and Susan Harris, poetic visions from the twentieth century will be reinforced and in many ways revised. Here, alongside renowned masters, are internationally celebrated poets who have rarely, if ever, been translated into English.
592 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2009
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658 people want to read
About the author
Ilya Kaminsky
66 books454 followersIlya Kaminsky is the Poetry Editor of Words Without Borders. His awards include a Ruth Lilly Fellowship from Poetry magazine and first place in the National Russian Essay Contest. He is the author of Dancing in Odessa which won the Dorset Prize.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
January 27, 2020
I loved this collection of poems! I'm also glad I'm starting to appreciate poetry more than I once did.
April 10, 2015
When your thoughts
don’t take you too far
and you are silent
as you tremble
and gaze
at the trellis of your hands.
When the chariot of your imagination
does not lead you into tunnels
lit up with apprehensions
and lightnings
as you remain silent
and tremble
gazing at the smoke twirling
around your wrist.
When the woman who lets
her scarf fall
through the evening’s emptiness
greets you, and you don’t
acknowledge
her greeting, but rather
remain silent, and tremble
as you gaze
at the destinies that unfold, lurching
in your coffee cup.
When the new immigrants pass by
arm in arm with their local women
blabbering about time that flees
so soon, and you keep silent
as you tremble and gaze
at the table’s
ambiguous wood.
When you don’t sit with anyone
and remember war only
as a horseshoe, or a coat
riddled with bullets.
When, upon an evening, in a cafe
the faces pass by you
like copper clouds
as you listen to cymbals that chime
in a faraway desert
or masts that break
in imaginary gulfs.
When the blind singer’s
record spins, once upon an evening,
in a cafe, the customers sigh
and you walk toward the axe
where it leans against the tree.
—Amjad Nasser, from "Once Upon an Evening, in a Cafe"
don’t take you too far
and you are silent
as you tremble
and gaze
at the trellis of your hands.
When the chariot of your imagination
does not lead you into tunnels
lit up with apprehensions
and lightnings
as you remain silent
and tremble
gazing at the smoke twirling
around your wrist.
When the woman who lets
her scarf fall
through the evening’s emptiness
greets you, and you don’t
acknowledge
her greeting, but rather
remain silent, and tremble
as you gaze
at the destinies that unfold, lurching
in your coffee cup.
When the new immigrants pass by
arm in arm with their local women
blabbering about time that flees
so soon, and you keep silent
as you tremble and gaze
at the table’s
ambiguous wood.
When you don’t sit with anyone
and remember war only
as a horseshoe, or a coat
riddled with bullets.
When, upon an evening, in a cafe
the faces pass by you
like copper clouds
as you listen to cymbals that chime
in a faraway desert
or masts that break
in imaginary gulfs.
When the blind singer’s
record spins, once upon an evening,
in a cafe, the customers sigh
and you walk toward the axe
where it leans against the tree.
—Amjad Nasser, from "Once Upon an Evening, in a Cafe"
July 5, 2012
A large collection of poetry that presented me with old friends and new discoveries. It's a great collection, perfect for reading and revisiting and keeping finding new images, new sounds, new combinations. A very good choice for a summer companion, if you want to have a book that has a wide variety of experience to offer.
August 21, 2019
Absolutely the best anthology of its kind that I have encountered. Especially comprehensive (to my eyes) when it comes to Polish, Russian, and Eastern European poets. As for Latin America, you've got both extremes, both Paz and Parra. Of course, the task of compiling a truly global 20th century anthology is a herculean one, and there will inevitably be a few blind spots. The Black poets chosen are too cursory, I think--mostly presidents, which I can't help but read as a more surface engagement w/ the curation process re: Africa & the diaspora (though the Aimé Césaire selections are impeccable, as is most of Cesaire's work). A slightly longer anthology that included more Black voices--off the top of my head, I'm thinking René Depestre (Haiti), Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo (Madagascar), Corsino Fortes (Cape Verde) and there are so many more...
And I suppose which translations should be included is a matter of taste, but yikes does Robert Bly butcher Vallejo.
And I suppose which translations should be included is a matter of taste, but yikes does Robert Bly butcher Vallejo.
November 30, 2022
SIX WORD REVEW: The whole world & mostly modern, too.
August 19, 2021
The introduction is excellent. There are some great poems in this collection.
Translation should be similar [to the original] but not the very same; and the similarity should not be like that of a painting or a statue to the person represented, but rather like that of a son to a father, where there is a shadowy something-akin to what painters call one's air-hovering about the face, and especially in the eyes, out of which there grows a likeness that immediately, upon our beholding the child, calls the father up before us.
— PETRARCH
CONSTANTINE P. CAVAFY
(GREECE, 1863-1933)
Body, Remember
Body, remember not only how much you were loved,
not only the beds you lay on,
but also those desires that glowed openly
in eyes that looked at you,
trembled for you in the voices-
only some chance obstacle frustrated them.
Now that it's all finally in the past,
it seems almost as if you gave yourself
to those desires too-how they glowed,
remember, in eyes that looked at you,
remember, body, how they trembled for you in those voices.
Translated from the Greek by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard
GIACOMO NOVENTA
(ITALY, 1898-1960)
What's Beyond
What's beyond
the sky, father?
Sky, my son. And beyond that?
More sky.
And beyond that?
Worse luck, God.
Translated from the Italian by Pearse Hutchinson
YEHUDA AMICHAI
(ISRAEL, 1924-2000)
I know a man
I know a man
who photographed the view he saw
from the window of the room where he made love
and not the face of the woman he loved there.
Translated from the Hebrew by Chana Bloch
Translation should be similar [to the original] but not the very same; and the similarity should not be like that of a painting or a statue to the person represented, but rather like that of a son to a father, where there is a shadowy something-akin to what painters call one's air-hovering about the face, and especially in the eyes, out of which there grows a likeness that immediately, upon our beholding the child, calls the father up before us.
— PETRARCH
CONSTANTINE P. CAVAFY
(GREECE, 1863-1933)
Body, Remember
Body, remember not only how much you were loved,
not only the beds you lay on,
but also those desires that glowed openly
in eyes that looked at you,
trembled for you in the voices-
only some chance obstacle frustrated them.
Now that it's all finally in the past,
it seems almost as if you gave yourself
to those desires too-how they glowed,
remember, in eyes that looked at you,
remember, body, how they trembled for you in those voices.
Translated from the Greek by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard
GIACOMO NOVENTA
(ITALY, 1898-1960)
What's Beyond
What's beyond
the sky, father?
Sky, my son. And beyond that?
More sky.
And beyond that?
Worse luck, God.
Translated from the Italian by Pearse Hutchinson
YEHUDA AMICHAI
(ISRAEL, 1924-2000)
I know a man
I know a man
who photographed the view he saw
from the window of the room where he made love
and not the face of the woman he loved there.
Translated from the Hebrew by Chana Bloch
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 3, 2022
This is fantastic! A must-read for anyone who's into modern poetry or poetry in translation. So much richness & diversity of voices, styles, themes and scope, and so much to love and admire. I'm immensely grateful to the editors, translators & publishers that international anthologies like this one exist.
I'm walking away with tons of new favourites:
Moishe Leib Halpern: "Man, That Ape"
Cesar Vallejo: "The anger that breaks a man down into boys"
Bertolt Brecht: "Motto"
Czeslaw Milosz: "A Gift"
Faiz Ahmed Faiz: "Before You Came"
Camilo Jose Cela: from "Mrs. Caldwell Speaks to Her Son"
Paul Celan: "Corona"
Wislawa Szymborska: "I Am Too Near"
Yehuda Amichai: "A Man in His Life"
Roberto Juarroz: "Life Draws a Tree"
Shuntaro Tanikawa: "Porno-Bach"
Marin Sorescu: "With a Green Scarf"
Dahlia Ravikovitch: "Hovering at a Low Altitude"
Pentti Saarikoski: "Potato Thief"
Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill: "A Recovered Memory of Water"
Ko Un: "What is this world?"
"A night of love with you,
a big baroque battle
and two victories." (from Anna Swir)
"Every word is a doorway
to a meeting, one often cancelled,
and that's when a word is true: when it insists on the meeting." (from Yannis Ritsos)
"It snows because the wind wants
to be water, because water
wants to be powder and powder wants
to seduce the eye. [...]" (from Pablo Medina)
"What is this world?
Here's a butterfly fluttering by
and there's a spider's web." (from Ko Un)
I'm walking away with tons of new favourites:
Moishe Leib Halpern: "Man, That Ape"
Cesar Vallejo: "The anger that breaks a man down into boys"
Bertolt Brecht: "Motto"
Czeslaw Milosz: "A Gift"
Faiz Ahmed Faiz: "Before You Came"
Camilo Jose Cela: from "Mrs. Caldwell Speaks to Her Son"
Paul Celan: "Corona"
Wislawa Szymborska: "I Am Too Near"
Yehuda Amichai: "A Man in His Life"
Roberto Juarroz: "Life Draws a Tree"
Shuntaro Tanikawa: "Porno-Bach"
Marin Sorescu: "With a Green Scarf"
Dahlia Ravikovitch: "Hovering at a Low Altitude"
Pentti Saarikoski: "Potato Thief"
Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill: "A Recovered Memory of Water"
Ko Un: "What is this world?"
"A night of love with you,
a big baroque battle
and two victories." (from Anna Swir)
"Every word is a doorway
to a meeting, one often cancelled,
and that's when a word is true: when it insists on the meeting." (from Yannis Ritsos)
"It snows because the wind wants
to be water, because water
wants to be powder and powder wants
to seduce the eye. [...]" (from Pablo Medina)
"What is this world?
Here's a butterfly fluttering by
and there's a spider's web." (from Ko Un)
January 11, 2014
So many great poems by poets I'd otherwise have been unaware of. It's a travelling book for me now. I can open it up anywhere and begin to read. Here's one by Maria Negroni I opened on just now translated from the Spanish by Anne Twitty.
The Baby
He who has nothing to hide,
has nothing to show
---Marguerite De Hainut
My baby is playing in the bath, delighted. I begin
to wash his head and spend some time at this.
Then he begins. When I start to rinse his hair, I
can't find him. I turn around, and there he is
again. I don't understand what is happening, and
grow stern. I scold him. I don't like what he's
doing. The baby laughs, more and more amused,
glimmers for an instant, and vanishes again. My
impatience only makes things worse. he disap-
pears more and more quickly, doesn't even give
me time to protest. Through layers of uneasiness,
I glimpse his mischievous glance; my blindness is
his victory, my jealousy his passion. For a while, I
go on resisting: I don't know how to welcome
impotence. The baby just wants to play. The
game is dazzling and lasts a lifetime.
The Baby
He who has nothing to hide,
has nothing to show
---Marguerite De Hainut
My baby is playing in the bath, delighted. I begin
to wash his head and spend some time at this.
Then he begins. When I start to rinse his hair, I
can't find him. I turn around, and there he is
again. I don't understand what is happening, and
grow stern. I scold him. I don't like what he's
doing. The baby laughs, more and more amused,
glimmers for an instant, and vanishes again. My
impatience only makes things worse. he disap-
pears more and more quickly, doesn't even give
me time to protest. Through layers of uneasiness,
I glimpse his mischievous glance; my blindness is
his victory, my jealousy his passion. For a while, I
go on resisting: I don't know how to welcome
impotence. The baby just wants to play. The
game is dazzling and lasts a lifetime.
January 26, 2021
"Every word is a doorway
to a meeting, one often cancelled,
and that’s when a word is true: when it insists on the meeting."
- Yannis Ritsos, from “The Meaning of Simplicity”
to a meeting, one often cancelled,
and that’s when a word is true: when it insists on the meeting."
- Yannis Ritsos, from “The Meaning of Simplicity”
August 22, 2024
This anthology is a stunning achievement—hundreds of pages of many of the best poems of the twentieth century, all translated to English. A murderous time. A shadow our lives continue to follow.
The mind spins when considering the work bringing this together entailed—what authors and which poems belonged, the precise discussions about translations of each word in these pages, securing the rights to reprint. Just wow.
The mind spins when considering the work bringing this together entailed—what authors and which poems belonged, the precise discussions about translations of each word in these pages, securing the rights to reprint. Just wow.
May 21, 2021
I love poetry, but I’m not too into collections. I was hoping the theme of translated poetry would be strong enough for me, but I never got into a flow. That said, there were some standout poets that I plan on looking into:
-Gottfried Benn: Germany
-Giuseppe Ungaretti: Italy
-Nâzim Hikmet: Turkey
-Anna Swir: Poland
-Faiz Ahmed Faiz: Pakistan
-Bernard Dadié: Côte d’Ivoire
-Gottfried Benn: Germany
-Giuseppe Ungaretti: Italy
-Nâzim Hikmet: Turkey
-Anna Swir: Poland
-Faiz Ahmed Faiz: Pakistan
-Bernard Dadié: Côte d’Ivoire
September 30, 2024
I read this book over two years, stopping frequently as I discovered this or that new poet and had to find them, read all of them, then return for new treasures. I finished it tonight accidentally -- the last hundred pages or so are biographies. I thought I had so much more, and now I'm bereft.
March 6, 2019
Perfect collection.
February 26, 2023
Impressive. But I wish there were more women and more poets of color.
October 31, 2024
Brilliant Must Read If U Love Poetry
March 13, 2020
Forgive me, for a minute, while I sound like a terrible wanker, but this glorious book of poems from everywhere is a giant, unarguable statement of unity, connection, solidarity, oneness and love. Buy it, you bunch of dweebs.
(or get it out of the Poetry Library at the Southbank like I did, if you live in London. It's free and wonderful).
(or get it out of the Poetry Library at the Southbank like I did, if you live in London. It's free and wonderful).
May 3, 2012
I'm a bit partial, as I helped with its creation (in a small way-- this is the only time my name will appear in the same book as Anna Akhmatova's), but still... it could be better. I love just about every poem in here, but do we need that much Milosz republished? It's not like he's an obscure figure.
Botton line: great intro to world poetry with a few surprises.
Botton line: great intro to world poetry with a few surprises.
December 8, 2012
Ja. Haan. Da. Ken. Si. Na'am. Oui. Tak. A wonderful, eclectic, refreshing collection--wonderful to slowly pour through over many months. Made me realize how amazing images and ideas must be if a poem is to be translated and still have power. I also responded to the directness of many of these voices. Though I got a little tired of anaphora, it had its efficacy too.
December 22, 2010
What a generous collection. It holds most welcome place on my shelf-- I will return to it often.
July 14, 2011
Always a fan of words without borders. This is an amazing anthology, highly recommended.
May 11, 2012
I read this in between things on my trip to china. Has some really gorgeous stuff. But I guess like a lot of anthologies some not so gorgeous stuff.
April 20, 2013
I hoped there would be more Asian content, but alas, it was mostly European - which is also good, just not as balanced as I'd hoped.
November 6, 2013
A beautiful, international book, a book of wonders. This anthology should be required reading for anyone who enjoys the Norton Anthology.
May 27, 2010
Love. So much love.
Want to read
November 21, 2011I love poetry, especially from other cultures!
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews