Henry N. Gifford is a writer, emerging translator from German to English, and Assistant Editor at New Vessel Press.

by Pere Gimferrer, translated from the Catalan by Adrian Nathan West (Carcanet)

It糖心传媒檚 possible that the titles of Pere Gimferrer糖心传媒檚 collections alone糖心传媒攆rom 1970糖心传媒檚 The Mirror, through Apparitions, and Light, to 2014糖心传媒檚 The Castle of Purity糖心传媒攅voke the spirit and development of the Barcelona-based poet糖心传媒檚 work more effectively than I could ever hope to. The Catalan Poems糖心传媒檚 table of contents, that list of titles, selections from the aforementioned collections, translated by Adrian Nathan West as gorgeously and precisely as the poems they foretoken, is a poem in itself that, making a stronger claim than I can for why this book should win the Best Translated Book Award. The elemental titles of the poems糖心传媒斕切拇綔May,糖心传媒� or 糖心传媒淰ision,糖心传媒� or 糖心传媒淏ell糖心传媒澨切拇綌speak to the effort towards the essence of things that occupies Gimferrer through his career. 糖心传媒淭here is a poetic truth deeper than scientific or material truth,糖心传媒� Gimferrer writes. But that poetic truth is not antithetical to material truth. For Gimferrer there is great overlap between the real and the ideal.

A single noun in isolation, like 糖心传媒淏ell,糖心传媒� is a beautiful illustration of this overlap. A poem, Gimferrer convincingly suggests, may in fact be an attempt to use many words when one will do. As the final lines of his 1978 poem 糖心传媒淟ight of Velintonia糖心传媒� put it: 糖心传媒淭he word of a man makes visible the real: / in the light, we may see the garden as garden.糖心传媒� His succession of images, his use or eschewal of imposed form, his sometimes straightforward declarations or descriptions, come together and succeed greatly at just this, making visible the real. I am grateful to witness the success of a poet with as great a vision as a style.

I am grateful, too, that West is a translator with such a remarkable capacity to convey that success without once faltering, a testament both to his linguistic dexterity and the intense care he must take as a reader糖心传媒擨n other words, to his own profound poetic sensitivity and talent. Take, for example, 糖心传媒淣ow the Poet Undertakes a Practical Act,糖心传媒� a poem in quatrains each with a strict abba rhyme scheme and nearly each line perfectly anapestic. Within these limits, West manages a beautifully alliterative line to start one stanza糖心传媒斕切拇綔When the swords bar your body I will not seek for death糖心传媒澨切拇綌only to break the metric consistency (though maintaining the syllable count) for the painfully and powerfully fragmented line to follow: 糖心传媒渂ars of darkness bars body body bowed blood in teeth.糖心传媒� All together: 糖心传媒淲hen the swords bar your body I will not seek for death / bars of darkness bars body body bowed blood in teeth.糖心传媒� I am reminded of the violently defamiliarizing language of Edmund in King Lear: 糖心传媒淲hy brand they us / With 糖心传媒榖ase糖心传媒�? with 糖心传媒榖aseness糖心传媒�? 糖心传媒榖astardy糖心传媒�? 糖心传媒榖ase, base糖心传媒�?糖心传媒�

It can be useful to know what a poet believes about poetry, to see first of all whether we agree, and second whether the poet follows their own prescriptions and achieves their own goals. It can be equally useful to examine a poem up close. Gimferrer糖心传媒檚 1980 collection As an Epilogue, from which 15 poems are included in The Catalan Poems, offers among its very short poems a beautiful opportunity for both useful exercises: a two-line poem entitled 糖心传媒淧oetic Art糖心传媒�:

More than the bestowal of synthesis:

to see in the light the transit of the light.

I agree with Gimferrer, that the bestowal of synthesis, the Metaphysical Poets糖心传媒� 糖心传媒渕ost heterogeneous ideas 糖心传媒� yoked by violence together糖心传媒� of which Dr. Johnson disapproved and which T.S. Eliot reclaimed, for instance, is part but not all of poetry, perhaps necessary but insufficient, in the useful language of statisticians. Eliot himself, especially in The Waste Land, the poem of fragments promising (though often withholding) union, seems to crop up quite frequently in The Catalan Poems, especially in 糖心传媒淒eserted Space糖心传媒� with the reference in its first few lines, if West糖心传媒檚 translation is to be trusted, to 糖心传媒渃ruel / spring糖心传媒澨切拇綌despite the greater acknowledged importance of Pound and Stevens (I rarely fully believe a poet糖心传媒檚 prose, anyway).

I agree also that any purpose of the bestowal of synthesis, as imagists like the young Ezra Pound knew, was to capture something about time糖心传媒攎oment and movement. The point of seeing the light is to see the transit of the light, to see the most true sense of the light as a thing with two termini and a path in between them, not the shadow only, but the form casting the shadow. Many poets have attempted to capture this, and many philosophers have failed even more dramatically than those poets. Gimferrer succeeds to a great extent in addressing and displaying the ideal reality of 糖心传媒渢he persistence of atemporal time糖心传媒� (糖心传媒淟ight of Velintonia l. 14). He achieves in that two-line 糖心传媒淧oetic Art糖心传媒� the bestowal of synthesis糖心传媒攐f synthesis itself and light糖心传媒攁s well as the perception of the transit of the light. At the close of West糖心传媒檚 interview with Gimferrer in this volume, the poet and translator discuss abstraction in poetry. West remarks that if poetry is 糖心传媒渁bstract, there糖心传媒檚 not really a hermeneutic entryway.糖心传媒� Gimferrer acknowledges the importance of abstraction in poetry, for which he credits Rimbaud, and says, 糖心传媒淭his was revolutionary, and its effects are evident in certain of my poems.糖心传媒� Its effects only, and certain only. I find Gimferrer delightfully, graciously interpretable, but with some work. Without the work, there is an abstraction to them that nevertheless succeeds in its poetic aims. For this reason, among so many others, this book ought to win the BTBA for Poetry.

At the close of The Catalan Poems we find a selection from the poet糖心传媒檚 Dietari 1979糖心传媒�1982, a series of elegant brief essays, both diary of Gimferrer糖心传媒檚 literary life and artistic dietary for his ideal reader. The Dietari include a story about an aging Mallarm茅 delivering a toast at a banquet; pithy crepuscular anecdotes about Ruskin, Monet, and Paz; and an essay on the morality Georges Simenon and John Le Carr茅. West spares none of his rhythmic brilliance or creativity in all types of rhyme in his translations of these prose pieces: 糖心传媒淟ike sheaves of wheat, we await the hour of final silence. Further afield, the reaping goes on into the evening,糖心传媒� he translates Gimferrer in a meditation on personifications of death by way of Wallace Stevens. Tolstoy糖心传媒檚 death during a sudden inspired train journey is, we are told, 糖心传媒渕oving.糖心传媒� These brief essays are a blessing for those of us looking to understand the poems we have read. They are beautifully written, translated with remarkable insight, and offer us access to something profound, true, instantaneous and eternal: poetry.