There’s nothing but a book in a foreign language. Somebody read it and shut it on the table, Forgot it, went away. (‘Without Rhyme or Reason’) In the introduction to this collection of the translations he has been publishing since the mid-sixties, John Ashbery addresses the implied tragedy of this image: “And after I began […]
Books
Elaine Feinstein, Talking to the Dead (Carcanet Press) £9.95
This latest collection from Elaine Feinstein exudes a strangely plaintive sense of calm, perhaps because the author largely eschews melodrama, self pity and regret, therefore avoiding many of the pitfalls less skilfull or experienced poets might stumble into. There is a precision to these poems, manifesting itself in an equilibrium of emotion and intellect. […]