Last Voyage - (Paperback)
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<p/><br></br><p><b> Book Synopsis </b></p></br></br>This first appearance of PascoliÆs poems in English translation provides an introduction to his work for the English-speaking reader. The first section of the book includes some of PascoliÆs brief lyric poems, many of them displaying his innovative use of image narrative. We see scenes of country life in his village near Barga, Italy, in the Apuan Alps, at the end of the 19th century. We see the aurora borealis, chickens, donkeys, women hanging laundry, the new railway and men crushing wheat. The second part of the book consists of three somewhat formal narrative poems set in classical Rome and Greece. The book ends with a long narrative sequence, an exciting and poignant re-imagining of OdysseusÆ famous tale told from the perspective of an old man. The aging hero falls asleep by the fire with Penelope and dreams a final voyage, in which he reassembles his old crew and visits the scenes of his earlier adventures: Circe, the Sirens, the Cyclops, Lotus Eaters and Calypso.<p/><br></br><p><b> Review Quotes </b></p></br></br><br><p> <br>"The poetic landscape of Pascoli, captured here in excellent English translations, is deceptively simple. It resonates like a "sound that falls evenly, softly, like a persuading voice", to borrow from one of Pascoli's poems. Spanning short lyrical pieces as well as longer neoclassical narratives, Pascoli's poetry gives an impression of smoothness, though its intensity is derived precisely from hidden dramatic themes and tensions. At times overtly philosophical, shot through with deep melancholic wisdom or irony, this richly orchestrated verse veers between potent references to ancient civilization and contemporary everyday experiences, displaying a distinct ear for the quotidian profanity of modern Italian poetic language."--Iztok Osojnik<br> </p><br><br><p>"The major portion of this ambtious translation is devoted to Pascoli's revisionist version of Homer's epic; in it Odysseus does not return home, slay the suitors and embrace his wife. Instead, he falls into a deep sleep, sails past Ithaka and is forced to revisit his former route, complete with heart-stopping adventures and profound grief. The narration is deft, elegiac, and intensely lyrical, making this book a pleasure to read."--Maxine Kumin<br> </p><br><p/><br></br><p><b> About the Author </b></p></br></br><p><br>Deborah Brown's forthcoming poetry collection, <i>Walking the Dog's Shadow</i>, won the A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize from BOA Editions. She is a professor of English and Chair of the Humanities Division at the University of New Hampshire, Manchester, where she has received the University's Excellence in Teaching Award. She is an editor, with Maxine Kumin and Annie Finch, of <i>Lofty Dogmas: Poets on Poetics</i> (University of Arkansas Press, 2005). Her essays, poems and translations have been published in <i>American Literature</i>, <i>Modern Language Studies</i>, <i>Prairie Schooner</i>, <i>The Alaska Quarterly Review</i>, <i>The Women's Review of Books</i>, <i>The Connecticut Review</i> and other literary journals. A chapbook, <i>News from the Grate</i>, (Oyster River Press), came out in 2002. She lives with her husband, George, and four cats on a former dairy farm in the woods of Warner, New Hampshire. <p/>Richard Jackson is the author of ten books of poems, most recently <i>Resonance </i>(Ashland Poetry Press, 2010), <i>Half Lives</i>: <i>Petrarchan </i>Poems (Autumn House, 2004), <i>Unauthorized Autobiography: New and Selected Poems</i> (Ashland, 2003), <i>Heartwall </i>(University of Massachusetts, 2000 Juniper Prize), and <i>Svetovi </i>Narazen (Slovenia, 2001). His own poems have been translated into fifteen languages. He has edited two anthologies of Slovene poetry, the <i>Selected Poems of Iztok Osojnik</i> (Slovenia), and <i>Poetry Miscellany</i>. In 2000, he was awarded the Order of Freedom Medal for literary and humanitarian work in the Balkans by the President of Slovenia and has received a Guggenheim, NEA, NEH, two Witter-Bynner and Fulbright Fellowships, and five Pushcart Prizes. He has won two teaching awards at UT-Chattanooga and the Vermont College MFA program. His previous book of translation is Alexander Persolja's, Potovanje Sonca (Journey of the Sun) from Slovene, 2008. <p/>Susan Thomas has stories, poems and translations in many journals and anthologies and has won the Iowa Poetry Award from Iowa Review, the Ann Stanford Prize from University of Southern California, and the 2010 MR Prize from the Mississippi Review. Her collection, <i>State of Blessed Gluttony</i>, (Red Hen Press, 2004), won the Benjamin Saltman Prize. She is also the author of two chapbooks, <i>The Hand Waves Goodbye</i>, and <i>Voice of the Empty Notebook</i>. Susan owes whatever Italian she knows to her wonderful dictionary and her experience working as a maid in a pensione in Florence many years ago. She learned many kitchen terms and rural curses and had the privilege of making up, every morning, the bed in Guido di Cavalcanti's villa, often slept in by his friend Dante Alighieri. <br> </p>
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