Caribou by Charles Wright

Abstract

STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, AND CIRCULATION 1. Publication Title: World Literature Today 2. Publication Number: 060-680 3. Filing Date: September 1, 2014 4. Issue Frequency: Bimonthly 5. Number of Issues Published Annually: Six 6. Annual Subscription Price: $30 Individual, $130 Institution 7. Complete Mailing Address of Known Office of Publication: World Literature Today / University of Oklahoma / 630 Parrington Oval, Suite 110 / Norman, OK 73019-4033 8. Complete Mailing Address of Headquarters of General Business Office of Publisher: World Literature Today / University of Oklahoma / 630 Parrington Oval, Suite 110 / Norman, OK 73019-4033 9. Full Names and Complete Mailing Addresses of: Publisher: Robert Con Davis-Undiano / World Literature Today / University of Oklahoma / 630 Parrington Oval, Suite 110 / Norman, OK 73019-4033. Assistant Director & Editor in Chief: Daniel Simon / World Literature Today / University of Oklahoma / 630 Parrington Oval, Suite 110 / Norman, OK 73019-4033 10. Owner: University of Oklahoma Board of Regents / 119 Evans Hall / Norman, OK 73019-3074 11. Known Bondholders, Mortgagees, and Other Security Holders: None 12. The purpose, function, and nonprofit status of this organization and the exempt status for federal income-tax purposes have not changed during the preceding twelve months. 13. Publication Title: World Literature Today 14. Issue Date for Circulation Data Below: September 2014 15. Extent and Nature of Circulation: 2225 1350 530 1880 50 50 50 2030 195 2225 92.6% Actual no. copies of single issue published nearest to filing date Average no. copies of each issue during preceding 12 months I certify that all information furnished above is true and complete. Daniel Simon, Assistant Director Total no. of copies Paid and/or requested circulation 1. Paid subscriptions 2. Counter sales Total paid and/or requested circulation Free distribution by mail Free distribution outside the mail Total free distribution Total distribution Copies not distributed Total Percent circulation 2225 1350 530 1880 50 50 50 2030 195 2225 92.6% Véronique Tadjo Far from My Father Amy Baram Reid, tr. University of Virginia Press When Nina returns to her home in the Côte d’Ivoire after her father’s death, she must reconcile her father’s secrets with the man she thought he was. Subtly political, emotionally charged, and set amid an atmosphere of devastation wrought by civil conflict and looming violence, Tadjo’s work reframes the legacy of polygamy by depicting a character’s intimate transformation. Nota Bene the shade of Mother Ceiba,” and his dream “took off its shoes / by the side of the road / and painted its face / with your footprints.” Harrington, who has lived in the Yucatan since 1984, has translated these poems from Sánchez Chan’s own translation into Spanish, a necessity given the dearth of poettranslators fluent in Yucatec Maya. While some contemporary indigenous poets write between languages, just as they speak in everyday life, those that don’t—that is, that are Mayanfirst poets like Sánchez Chan—often lack the skill required to render their poetry into a Spanish product of equal quality. The poetry shines through, but without the vivacity of the original ; the orality of the poem often suffers, and the language tends to lapse into the faux baroque. The same might be true of any poet translating into their secondary language. My only critique of Harrington’s translations is that they too strongly reflect Spanish-language syntax, especially the use of nested prepositions rather than the much more fluid English possessive. Harrington has endeavored , he writes in his introduction, to use “a minimum of footnotes,” and I appreciate his employing only the occasional asterisk. The publication of Seven Dreams, the first-ever bilingual single-author collection of contemporary Mayan poetry, is an important milestone in the recognition of its poetry both abroad and within Mexico, where indigenous poetry is mostly considered disconnected from the dominant concerns of mainstream Spanish -language poetry. David Shook Los Angeles Charles Wright. Caribou. New York. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. 2014. isbn 9780374119027 The tenor of this newest book by Charles Wright is announced by the titles of its three sections: “Echoes,” “End Papers,” and “Apocrypha.” The poems are full of memory, summations , and thoughts that do not fit easily into Christian orthodoxy. The tension of opposites...