Lightning in a bottle…Amaral has a remarkable gift for making the personal universal and the universal intimate.

Hasan Altaf, Paris Review Daily

Poems of effervescent grace—about nature, magpies, reality, “the unreasons of this world,” and spiders—from one of Portugal’s most beloved poets, published in a beautiful bilingual edition

World

Poetry by Ana Luísa Amaral

Translated from Portuguese by Margaret Jull Costa

World—Ana Luísa Amaral’s second collection with New Directions—offers a new exhilarating set of poems that convey wonder, bemusement, and an ever-deepening appreciation of life. Weaving the thread that connects the poem to life, World speaks of our immense human perplexity in the face of everything around us and our oneness with it all. As Amaral notes, all of us, “humans and non-humans, are on the same ontological level, the differences being only a matter of perspective. We are all made of the same stuff as dreams—and stars.”

Asked about her thoughts on World, Amaral’s peerless translator Margaret Jull Costa replied: “What I take from this collection of poems is a sense of joy in the ordinary—seeing an ant going about its business, or a bee or a fish, or the feeling of sharing a whole history with a particular table, or watching a very ordinary woman sitting on a train playing with the handle of her handbag. World also brings us meditations on colonization, slavery, and whaling. Like the world, it is full of surprises and full of joy and sadness.” These vibrant, exultant poems invite you to share this marvelous world: Yes, all you need (how easy!) is to say yes.

Paperback(published Apr, 04 2023)

ISBN
9780811234832
Price US
17.95
Trim Size
5x8
Page Count
144

Ebook

ISBN
9780811234849
Portrait of Ana Luísa Amaral

Ana Luísa Amaral

Portuguese poet

Lightning in a bottle…Amaral has a remarkable gift for making the personal universal and the universal intimate.

Hasan Altaf, Paris Review Daily

Ana Luísa Amaral insists upon a reflection on art as an intensely human act. Her poetics is inextricably enmeshed with ethics.

Professor Paulo de Medeiros

Ana Luísa Amaral’s poems read as intimate conversations between the poet and reader, in either the early hours of morning or the late hours of night, where small, everyday moments quickly spiral into great cultural, historical, and even cosmic significance. Brilliant.

The Arkansas International