Poetry
112 Pages
ISBN: 0-910055-58-0
Paper: $15.95
ISBN: 0-910055-59-9
Cloth: $24.00

Josefina de la Torre, one of the few women included in the now mythic generation of '27, was the last living representative of that poetic group.  Her early participation in the cultural life of her native island, Gran Canaria, and the fact that she belongs to a family of artists, encouraged her protean personality as poet, composer, and singer.  Music and poetry are joined equally in her light and intimate verse, which unfurls transparent and unadorned as the sea stitched with memories.  Her passages offer us a heart that moves between nostalgia, tenderness, and courage in the face of destiny's pitfalls.  And if Josefina de la Torre was first discovered by voices such as Alberti, Salinas, Diego, and Lorca, it is, at the dawning of a new century, a poet who has brought her once again to our notice: Carlos Reyes, dazzled by that startling writing, became the first translator of her work.  He has succeeded in turning her verses into English while still leaving their mystery intact, and at the same time has put the Spanish intellectual community on notice, so that it now turns its glance toward this forgotten poet, whom Reyes has brought to light with his poetic intuition.
Regardless of the popularity and critical success of her work in the Spanish-speaking world, none of de la Torre's books have ever before been published in English.  Carlos Reyes' thoughtful and spirited translations of these two volumes of poetry will bring this important poet to an audience long deprived of the beauty and power of her work.