Blood of the Sun: Poems by Salgado Maranhão

Blood of the Sun: Poems Reviews

• 
  Lauren

  "Behold the words learned in the desert; behold the fingers blossoming poison beneath the flowers."
  - #3. Blood of the Sun
  
  Salgado Maranhão's poetry, and Alexis Levitin's translation were fantastic reading. So glad to see this dedication to translate poetry.
• 
  Squirrel

  I had the opportunity to attend a reading by Salgado Maranhao and his translator, Alexis Levitin, and was completely swept away. Both the poet and the translator have a passion for the beauty of the spoken word and the aesthetic in the sounds alone. That passion permeates the poetry. The words themselves, without contemplation of meaning, are just so very pretty to read and to listen to. Past the music of it, Maranhao is also definitely an artist with words. The poems, in a variety of freeform and verse, contain rich imagery, parallelisms, and allusions that immerse you in the emotions--running the gamut of nostalgic, pensive, celebratory, awe-filled, angry, and frustrated, often in combination--that saturate them.
  
  I do feel that perhaps the Afterword could have been moved to be an Introduction instead, and also detailed some of the historical inspirations more (for example, "Yanomami"). Maranhao richly interprets Brazil's culture, history, geography, and society in his poems, and often integrates such into his own personal history. Giving his poetry the appropriate context enhances the reading experience and reveals angles not readily apparent. This is a minor thing though, and it could be argued that the lack of introduction (substituted for instead by the afterword) was deliberate so as not to detract from a visceral enjoyment of the sounds the first time one reads through the volume.
  
  The physical book itself is a high quality product. The paper isn't flimsy or otherwise strange to the touch, and the cover is durable and shiny. The price:quality ratio is something I can't complain about.
  
  All in all, I really hope another volume of his work is released in translation soon.
• 
  Hank

  Lovely bilingual edition of the Brazilian poet's elemental collection. It's basically out-of-print, but well worth finding from a used place.
  
  Reading the Portuguese, even with my stubbornly bilingual brain, I glimpsed the alliterative music of Maranhao's verse. Levitin's translation demonstrates the same attention to language--not that I can really evaluate that. The point is, Blood of the Sun features some absolutely incredible poems that are unlike any I've read from the English language. This is why we read translations: to encounter completely new worlds in prose and verse.
• 
  Brian Brogan

  potent, top tier, one of my favourite poets
• 
  Sara

  The first book I've read in years thy I couldn't bear to put down. A beautiful new collaboration between a Brazilian poet and my favorite translator of Portuguese.