Night Journey

One of South America's most celebrated contemporary poets takes us on a fantastic voyage to mysterious lands and seas, into the psyche, and to the heart of the poem itself. Night Journey is the English-language debut of the work that won María Negroni an Argentine National Book Award. It is a book of dreams--dreams she renders with surreal beauty that recalls the work of her compatriot Alejandra Pizarnik, with the penetrating subtlety of Borges and Calvino.





In sixty-two tightly woven prose poems, Negroni deftly infuses haunting imagery with an ironic, personal spirituality. Effortlessly she navigates the nameless subject to the slopes of the Himalayas, to a bar in Buenos Aires, through war, from icy Scandinavian landscapes to the tropics, across seas, toward a cemetery in the wake of Napoleon's hearse, by train, by taxis headed in unrequested directions, past mirrors and birds, between life and death.





Night Journey reflects a mastery of a traditional form while brilliantly expressing a modern condition: the multicultural, multifaceted individual, ever in motion. Displacement abounds: a "medieval tabard" where a pelvis should be, a "lipless grin," a "beach severed from the ocean." In one poem "nomadic cities" whisk past. In another, smiling cockroaches loom in a visiting mother's eyes.





Anne Twitty, whose elegant translations are accompanied by the Spanish originals, remarks in her preface that the book's "indomitable literary intelligence" subdues an unspoken terror--helplessness. Yet, as observed by the angel Gabriel, the consoling voice of wisdom, only by accepting the journey for what it is can one discover its "hidden splendor," the "invisible center of the poem." As readers of this magnificent work will discover, this is a journey that, because its every fleeting image conjures a thousand words of fertile silence, can be savored again and again.

ix Kidnapped by the Inexorable - TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION 2 Esqueletos bajo el cielo - 3 Skeletons under the Sky 4 La jaula en flor - 5 Cage in Bloom 6 Catastrofe - 7 Catastrophe 8 Ecuyere y militar - 9 Equestrienne and Officer 10 Los bosques de marmol - 11 The Marble Forests 12 La perdida - 13 Loss 14 Gabriel - 15 Gabriel 16 Heraldica - 17 Heraldry 18 Van Gogh - 19 Van Gogh 20 The Great Watcher - 21 The Great Watcher 22 El espejo del alma - 23 Mirror of the Soul 24 La ciudad nomade - 25 Nomadic City 26 El padre - 27 The Father 28 Dialogo con Gabriel I - 29 Dialogue with Gabriel I 30 Lido - 31 Lido 32 La visita - 33 The Visit 34 La guia telefonica - 35 The Telephone Book 36 El mapa del Tiempo - 37 The Map of Time 38 Napoleon II - 39 Napoleon II 40 Los amantes - 41 The Lovers 42 Los ojos de Dios - 43 The Eyes of God 44 El caballo blanco - 45 The White Horse 46 El bebe - 47 The Baby 48 Las tres madonas - 49 The Three Madonnas 50 Tout cherche tout - 51 Tout cherche tout 52 Carta a Sevres - 53 Letter to Sevres 54 El diccionario infinito - 55 The Infinite Dictionary 56 Las ventanas del siglo - 57 Windows on the Century 58 Dialogo con Gabriel II - 59 Dialogue with Gabriel II 60 Los dos cielos - 61 The Two Heavens 62 Fata Morgana - 63 Fata Morgana 64 New Jersey - 65 New Jersey 66 Rosamundi - 67 Rosamundi 68 Encrucijada - 69 Crossroads 70 La ceguera - 71 Blindness 72 Midgard - 73 Midgard 74 La ropa - 75 Clothes 76 El diluvio - 77 The Deluge 78 Sleeping Beauty - 79 Sleeping Beauty 80 El viaje - 81 The Journey 82 Die Zeit - 83 Die Zeit 84 Dialogo con Gabriel III - 85 Dialogue with Gabriel III 86 Teoria de la luz - 87 Theory of Light 88 Los hilos del ser - 89 Threads of Being 90 Over Exposure - 91 Over Exposure 92 Eternidad - 93 Eternity 94 Los osos - 95 The Bears 96 El mundo no termina - 97 The World Doesn't End 98 Cuento de hadas - 99 Fairytale 100 Terra Incognita - 101 Terra Incognita 102 Peridural y despojo - 103 Epidural and Plunder 104 Hieros gamos - 105 Hieros gamos 106 Dialogo con Gabriel IV - 107 Dialogue with Gabriel IV 108 Simurgh - 109 Simurgh 110 El libro de los seres - 111 The Book of Being 112 El techo del mundo - 113 The Roof of the World 114 El juego sin nombre - 115 The Anonymous Game 116 Hurgalya, ciudad peregrina - 117 Hurgalya, Peregrine city 118 Los cielos del otono - 119 Autumn Skies 122 Teoria del buen morir - 123 Theory of a Good Death 124 Casandra - 125 Cassandra 126 Carta a mi misma - 127 Letter to Myself