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Forth
The clarity and cleverness of Rosmon Tuazon’s poetry—often surprising, always gripping—are made all the more evident by an assured translation, thanks to Ben Aguilar’s ability to create new music while preserving the essence of the originals. Clearly here are two well-matched poets whose deftly-written lines linger in the mind, certain to be remembered—and weigh urgently on the tongue, demanding to be spoken. ---Stefani Tran
... In each of the poems, Rosmon Tuazon situates the reader in active engagement with the world to allow them to experience the force of history in the here-and-now as it is embodied in language. He effectively gives shape to the faculties of poetry to bring us to the brink of choice and the awakening of agency. We need this book even more urgently now during this time of dissolution of the bases of our beliefs. … I am glad that Tuazon’s works will find new and more readers through the skillful translation of Ben Aguilar. ---Allan Popa
The poems in Rosmon Tuazon’s Mula bind faith and unrest in that everyday hollow where sanity and sadness and stories make their way into something other than emptiness, which feels more than enough in a world that constantly seems in need of salvation, and Ben Aguilar powerfully translates them into Forth, as if he was making love with hunger and darkness—here wanting a future, there desiring history, and here again pining from the remains of broken present knowledge. An arresting translation is like being always on the verge of drowning in the time and form of the source—and then recognizing that words can actually consume the current and break forth into its own mangled molds of survival. ---Edgar Calabia Samar
Rosmon Tuazon moves deftly between rigor and tenderness in Mula, translated here as Forth. It’s astonishing to be in awe of and over the sensitivity with which the poet approaches each piece. Tuazon has been a surging voice, breaking through the hardness of all things primordial and newly evolved. ... Ben Aguilar’s translation is a composite achievement, a layering and with attention given even to the small moments of epiphany in the poems. Forth holds true, indeed, to one of its meanings: to emerge, to appear without necessarily stretching one’s head out of the water. ---Niles Jordan Breis
... In each of the poems, Rosmon Tuazon situates the reader in active engagement with the world to allow them to experience the force of history in the here-and-now as it is embodied in language. He effectively gives shape to the faculties of poetry to bring us to the brink of choice and the awakening of agency. We need this book even more urgently now during this time of dissolution of the bases of our beliefs. … I am glad that Tuazon’s works will find new and more readers through the skillful translation of Ben Aguilar. ---Allan Popa
The poems in Rosmon Tuazon’s Mula bind faith and unrest in that everyday hollow where sanity and sadness and stories make their way into something other than emptiness, which feels more than enough in a world that constantly seems in need of salvation, and Ben Aguilar powerfully translates them into Forth, as if he was making love with hunger and darkness—here wanting a future, there desiring history, and here again pining from the remains of broken present knowledge. An arresting translation is like being always on the verge of drowning in the time and form of the source—and then recognizing that words can actually consume the current and break forth into its own mangled molds of survival. ---Edgar Calabia Samar
Rosmon Tuazon moves deftly between rigor and tenderness in Mula, translated here as Forth. It’s astonishing to be in awe of and over the sensitivity with which the poet approaches each piece. Tuazon has been a surging voice, breaking through the hardness of all things primordial and newly evolved. ... Ben Aguilar’s translation is a composite achievement, a layering and with attention given even to the small moments of epiphany in the poems. Forth holds true, indeed, to one of its meanings: to emerge, to appear without necessarily stretching one’s head out of the water. ---Niles Jordan Breis
100 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2021
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