With an unprecedented translation in Brazil, the launch of the bilingual edition ‘Cecília’ is held in Manaus

Manaus (AM) – The launch of the bilingual edition (Portuguese and Spanish) of Cecília, by Editora Valer, will be held this Thursday (22), at the ICBEU library, located on Av. Joaquim Nabuco, Center of Manaus, from 6pm. The author of the book is the winner of several literary awards and one of the main references of contemporary poetry in Spanish, Antônio Gamoneda, 92 years old.

The translation was carried out by Professor Saturnino Valladares, professor at the University of Amazonas – Ufam, a Spaniard based in Manaus, who recently met the poet on a trip to Spain.

The book was written as a consequence of the birth of the poet’s granddaughter, Cecília. The author’s most vitalist and luminous poem is the second work by Antonio Gamoneda published in Brazil. The first was ‘Book of Cold’, also published by Valer, in 2020, and translated by Professor Saturnino.

“I wish to present to the Brazilian reader a work by the same author, but with a radically different theme”,

explained the translator.

To understand the importance, significance and originality of Cecília – a poem composed of thirty poems and originally published in 2004 – in the set of Esta luz: Poesia reunida,’ in addition to the historical, social and cultural contexts, the author highlights in the book’s presentation that it is necessary to remember some biographical and poetic circumstances of Antonio Gamoneda.

With this intention, he intends to synthesize some ideas that he has already expressed at other times and address certain recurring characteristics that appear in his first verses and in his most significant books, such as ‘Castilian Blues’, ‘Description of the Lie’ or ‘Book of the Cold’ .

According to Valer’s editorial coordinator, professor with a PhD in Philosophy Neiza Teixeira, this is a poetic mistake, because in Gamoneda’s work, after this flash of life, there is a return to the main themes that are constant in his poetics, among which Death occupies a prominent place, which had a strong impact on his childhood.

Gamoneda, in an interview with Jordy Ardany (Lateral: Revista de Cultura, n. 122, 2005, p. 26), stated: “Cecília deals with the meeting of a being that comes from nonexistence to existence with another that is departing from existence and there is nonexistence nearby. I found in this book a kind of temporary reconciliation with life.”

According to Neiza, the poet disconcerts himself and us when he opens, like a stream, with its clear waters and rapids, his poetic trajectory and himself, to talk about life, love and youth, which separate, like he states, from non-existence to poetize existence.

“In this sense, this book opens up as a channel of studies on the poet and the poet, on the paths that life can take the poet and on the receptivity that the Spoken Word guarantees to him”,

Neiza said.

This book is also notable for its form: small texts, as if they wanted to be prose, but slipping into verse, for the freedom to look for deep, almost ineffable meanings in the word and only in it.

For those who want to purchase the work, simply access the vale website editorialvaler.com.br or request via WhatsApp 92 99613-1113.

Antonio Gamoneda

Antonio Gamoneda (Oviedo, 1931) is a unique poet in Spanish poetry of the last 70 years. During the Civil War (1936-1939), he learned to read from the only book in his house, ‘Another Highest Life’, a poem that his father had published in 1919. The initial reading of this text, written by a dead man so next, perhaps it will help to understand his definition of poetry: “it is the story of how one advances towards death, but, at the same time, it is also the art of implying pleasure in this story” (GAMONEDA, 2004, p. 15). Behind this statement, there is another more radical one: poetry is not literature. In the author’s opinion, literature is based on fiction, while poetry tells our own lives. However, it is in the process of creation that Gamoneda discovers his poetic thought: “I do not know my thought until my own words are told to me” (GAMONEDA, 2004, p. 13).

Chronologically, he belongs to the poetic group of the 50s, although, literarily, he denies this link and even the existence of this supposed generation. The poets of this group were bourgeois and university students, while Gamoneda comes from a culture of poverty, and his cultural and literary formation was self-taught. The author himself referred to the different political attitude that these circumstances entailed.

Saturnino Valladares

Professor at the Federal University of Amazonas – Ufam. Poet and translator. PhD in Humanities and Cultural Services (Area: Literature) from the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain). Master in Spanish Teaching, concentration area: Spanish Language and Literature, from the University of Santiago de Compostela. Graduated in Literature, with a Full Degree in Spanish, from the University of Santiago de Compostela. His research work focuses on the study of contemporary Spanish poetry, with an emphasis on the work of José Angel Valente, as well as the translation and teaching of poetry.

*With information from consultancy

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