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"In order to talk with the dead
you have to know how to wait:
they are fearful
like the first steps of a child.
But if we are patient
one day they will answer us
with a poplar leaf trapped in a broken mirror,
with a flame that suddenly revives in the fireplace,
with a dark return of birds
before the glance of a girl
who waits motionless on the threshold."
-from "In Order to Talk with the Dead"
Reared in the rainy forests of Chile's "La Frontera" region which had nurtured Pablo Neruda a generation earlier, Jorge Teillier has become one of Chile's leading contemporary poets, whose work is widely read in Latin America and Europe along with the poetry of his well-known contemporaries Nicanor Parra and Enrique Lihn. This English-Spanish bilingual anthology now introduces English-speaking readers to Teillier, with a representative selection of his best work from all phases of his career.
Carolyne Wright has translated poems from the volumes Muertes y maravillas (1971), Para un pueblo fantasma (1978), and Cartas para reinas de otras primaveras (1985). Avoiding the bravura effects of some of his contemporaries, Teillier writes from a life lived directly and simply, returning time and again in his poetry to the timeless and mythic South of his boyhood, the "Land of Nevermore."
List of contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: "From the Land of Nevermore: On the Poetry of Jorge Teillier" by Carolyne Wright
- Translator's Note
- PART ONE. Poems from Muertes y maravillas (Deaths and Wonders) (1953-1971)
- From A los habitantes del País de Nunca Jamás (To the Inhabitants of the Land of Nevermore) (1953-1970)
- Ontoño secreto / Secret Autumn
- Alegría / Joy
- La última isla / The Last Island
- Imagen para un estanque / Image for a Pond
- He confiado en la noche / I Have Trusted in the Night
- Relatos / Narratives
- Tarde / Afternoon
- Poema de invierno / Winter Poem
- La llave / The Key
- Carta de lluvia / Letter of Rain
- Puente en el sur / Bridge in the South
- Tarjeta postal / Postcard
- Sentados frente al fuego / Sitting in Front of the Fire
- Letra de tango / Tango Lyric
- Cuento de la tarde / Afternoon Story
- Para hablar con los muertos / In Order to Talk with the Dead
- Un año, otro año / One Year, Another Year
- Atardecer en automóvil / Afternoon in Automobile
- Cuando todos se vayan / When Everyone Goes Away
- Fin del mundo / End of the World
- Historia de un hijo pródigo / Story of a Prodigal Son
- Otro cantar / Another Song
- Señales / Signs
- Los conjuros / The Exorcisms
- Linterna sorda / Dark Lantern
- Molino de madera / Wooden Mill
- La tierra de la noche / The Land of Night
- En memoria de una casa cerrada / In Memory of a Closed House
- Juegos / Games
- Imagen / Image
- A un niño en un árbol / To a Child in a Tree
- Frutos del verano / Fruits of Summer
- Edad de oro / Golden Age
- Los trenes de la noche (Night Trains) (1964, 1971)
- Los trenes de la noche / Night Trains
- PART TWO. Poems from Para un pueblo fantasma (For a Town of Ghosts) (1978)
- From Nadie ha muerto aún en esta casa (Nobody's Died Yet in This House) (1978)
- Nadie ha muerto aún en esta casa / Nobody's Died Yet in This House
- Aperitivo / Aperitif
- Siete paia un secieto / Seven for a Secret
- Bajo el cielo nacido tras la lluvia / Under the Sky Born after the Rain
- Lluvia inmóvil / Immobile Rain
- Ultimo día de vacaciones / Last Day of Vacation
- En el mes de los zorros / In the Month of Foxes
- From Pequeña confesión (Small Confession) (1978)
- Paisaje de Clínica / Clinical Landscape
- Mi amor por ti / My Love for You
- Notas sobre el último viaje del autor a su pueblo natal (Notes on the Author's Last Journey to the Town of His Birth) (1978)
- Notas sobre el último viaje del autor a su pueblo natal / Notes on the Author's Last Journey to the Town of His Birth
- From "Las ciudades que he conocido vivían como locas" ("The Cities I have Known Were Living Like Mad") (1978)
- Un día en Madrid / A Day in Madrid
- From Libro de homenajes (Book of Homages) (1971, 1978)
- Los dominios perdidos / The Lost Domain
- El retorno de Orfeo / The Return of Orpheus
- Retrato de mi padre, militante comunista / Portrait of My Father, Militant Communist
- Despedida / So Long
- PART THREE. Poems from Cartas para reinas de otras primaveras (Letters to Queens of Other Springs) (1985)
- Todo está en bianco / Everything's Gone White
- Ahora que de nuevo / Now That Once Again
- Sin señal de vida / No Sign of Life
- Notes
- About the Poet
- About the Translator
About the author
Winner of several prestigious awards, including the Gabriela Mistral Prize, Jorge Teillier (1935-1996) spent much of his adult life working as a reviewer and journalist for many of Chile's leading magazines and newspapers. Translator Carolyne Wright is also an award-winning poet.
