Quote of the Day
an admirable concern to keep lines open to writing in Ireland, Scotland, Wales and America.
Seamus Heaney
|
|
Book Search
Subscribe to our mailing list
|
|
Invisible DogFabio MorábitoTranslated by Richard Gwyn10% off all versions
Categories: 20th Century, 21st Century, Dual Language, Italian, Mexican, Spanish and Catalan, Translation
Imprint: Carcanet Poetry Publisher: Carcanet Press Available as: Paperback (144 pages) (Pub. Nov 2024) 9781800174511 £12.99 £11.69 eBook (EPUB) Needs ADE! (Pub. Nov 2024) 9781800174528 £10.39 £9.35 To use the EPUB version, you will need to have Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) installed on your device. You can find out more at https://www.adobe.com/uk/solutions/ebook/digital-editions.html. Please do not purchase this version if you do not have and are not prepared to install, Adobe Digital Editions.
Fabio Morábito is one of Mexico's best loved and most entertaining contemporary writers, his narratives marked by a humane irony and a philosophical resignation to the vagaries of his society and the irresistible tyrannies of time. Some of his poems make the reader laugh out loud, and Richard Gwyn's translations are true to the tone and manner of the originals. This is the first collection of his poems to appear in English, putting right a significant omission.
The fifty-four poems in Invisible Dog were selected by the poet and translator in collaboration and draw from his five published collections spread over four decades. Readers enjoy a comprehensive introduction to his work in breadth and depth. His formal and thematic developments illuminate the wider context of modern Latin American writing, its inventive playfulness, its evasion of conventions of 'national culture'. Morábito was born to Italian parents in Alexandria in 1955 and has lived in Mexico City since the age of fifteen. His position as a poet writing in a second language contributes to his unique voice and vision. It is possible in these versions to detect elements of the poet's 'foreignness' in his straightforward lexical choices, which have the effect of making the poems somehow vulnerable, as in 'Journey to Pátzcuaro', a sort of allegory for the immigrant experience.
Awards won by Richard Gwyn
Short-listed, 2020 The Premio Valle Inclán Award for Spanish Translation (Impossible Loves)
'Morábito is a real discovery: reading him is like being in the room with someone who trusts you enough to think aloud. Immaculately translated, this selection covers 40 years' worth of unusually direct and intimate work. It mostly consists of columnar, free-verse poems that track the light and dark of thought and are by turns witty, sentimental, proverbial and nostalgic.'
Fiona Sampson, The Guardian 'an essential collection for anyone who cares about contemporary poetry. Gentle but caustically funny, humane but clear-sighted, it's a wonder that [Morábito's] work isn't better known in the UK. Invisible Dog should correct this omission and bring many more readers and writers into Morábito's bright and gently compelling orbit.' Luke Kennard, The Telegraph 'Perhaps the term "co-author" might be more accurate than translator to describe Gwyn's accomplishment -- a term which carries inherent within it a connotation of something derivative of the original, but not quite the real thing. Not so here. The spirit of fidelity to the original poems is retained throughout, and while Gywn avoids taking unnecessary risks or liberties (these poems fall somewhere between translations and versions), in the process of faithfully and accurately transporting the original cargo intact across the bridge between the two languages, he creates poetry of his own: the benchmark for a work of literary translation.' Colin Carberry, The High Window 'Lucidly translated ... The book is filled with unforgettable poems addressing themes of masculinity, philosophy and the relentless passage of time, often with dark humour and irony, both well-known qualities of Morábito's oeuvre ... A stunning collection.' Leo Boix, Morning Star 'Invisible Dog is a big-hearted collection: suffused with exile and affection, funny and serious, wise and hopeful. These poems have been exposed to all the heat and light of a life, and now they offer a resolving simplicity, a gorgeous record of all that heat and light and happiness and loss. Richard Gwyn's translations capture Morábito's warmth of tone, the plain language with which he disentangles complex ideas, and the candour that should win him many readers in this language.' Ailbhe Darcy 'Invisible Dog deals in vacated and reinhabited spaces: houses and parts of houses, languages, cities, the body, sites of danger or anticipation. In this, Morábito has found a companionable translator in Richard Gwyn â a writer who understands the logic of trespass, and the ambivalences and vexations of the homes we make for ourselves.' Abigail Parry Praise for Richard Gwyn 'This dual language collection, full of witticisms and lyrical meditations on everyday life, showcases one of the greatest living poets from Latin America... Gwyn's selection, from a poet who's career spans five decades, shows Jaramillo at the height of his powers.' Leo Boix, The Poetry Review |
Share this...
Quick Links
Carcanet Poetry
Carcanet Classics
Carcanet Fiction
Carcanet Film
Lives and Letters
PN Review
Video
Carcanet Celebrates 50 Years!
The Carcanet Blog
We've Moved!
read more
Books of the Year
read more
One Little Room: Peter McDonald
read more
Collected Poems: Mimi Khalvati
read more
Invisible Dog: Fabio Morbito, translated by Richard Gwyn
read more
Dante's Purgatorio: Philip Terry
read more
|
We thank the Arts Council England for their support and assistance in this interactive Project.
|
|
This website ©2000-2025 Carcanet Press Ltd
|