No Shelter

A Lannan Translation Selection

Beautifully translated by the award-winning American poet Forrest Gander, the work of highly esteemed Mexican poet Pura López-Colomé is, with this important volume, available in the US for the first time. Selected by Gander from throughout López-Colomé's five books in Spanish, these exceptional poems confront the confinements of fate, history, and misbegotten beliefs.

In forms that blur back and forth between poetry and prose, López-Colomé uses spare and honest language to describe the music of dreams, faith, and faithlessness; hers are poems of the soul resuscitated from the shackles of the body. As Gander notes in his Introduction: "[This] poetry is philosophical and exacting, pared into short, sharp lines, obsidian flakes." Indeed, the fierce intelligence and insistent moral and spiritual engagement of López-Colomé's poetry situate her among the most significant contemporary Mexican poets. No Shelter is a bilingual edition, with English translations appearing in the first half of the text and the Spanish originals in the second.

ENGLISH

I. No Shelter
Prism

II. Aurora
Aurora

III. No Shelter
The Cubs
Death of the Kiss
Dramatis Personae
Heartache

IV. One Crystal in Another
One Crystal in Another
SPANISH

I. Intemperie
Prisma

II. Aurora
Aurora

III. Intemperie
Los Cachorros
La Muerte del Beso
Dramatis Personae
Dolor de Corazón

IV. Un cristal en otro
Un Cristal en Otro