Notes / Notas
‘One of the greatest poets the world has today.’ —José Saramago, Winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature
This bilingual edition makes Juan Gelman’s hauntingly beautiful poetry collection, Notes / Notas, available to English-speaking audiences in its entirety for the first time.
Originally published in 1979, Notas / Notes was composed in exile, following the 1976 military coup d’etat in Argentina. This period of state terrorism resulted in the disappearance of writers, comrades, and Gelman’s own son.
With a deep appreciation for Gelman’s masterful linguistic play, translators Afsari and Tandeciarz channel the force of his poetic testimony against the real violence of dictatorship.
Interweaving reflections on revolution, loss and memory, Argentina’s poet laureate conjures forth a sense of hope in the wake of inconceivable suffering.
Juan Gelman
Juan Gelman (1930-2014) has been widely hailed as one of the greatest contemporary Spanish-language poets as well as Argentina’s poet laureate, publishing more than twenty books of poetry over the course of his lifetime. His numerous accolades include the National Poetry Prize (Argentina, 1997); the Juan Rulfo Prize in Latin American and Caribbean Literature (Mexico, 2000); the Pablo Neruda Prize (Chile, 2005); the Queen Sofia Prize in Ibero-American Poetry (Spain, 2005); and the Premio Leteo in 2012. In 2007, Gelman became the fourth Argentine to be awarded the Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the most prestigious Spanish-language literary award, following in the footsteps of Jorge Luis Borges, Ernesto Sabato and Adolfo Bioy Casares. In addition to his lifelong commitment to militancy and leftist-political activism, Gelman worked as a journalist and a translator for the United Nations in Argentina, Spain, France, and Italy.
Author portrait © Enrique Hernández D'Jesús