89 poets-with a very strong female presence-from Latin American and Caribbean countries feature in an anthology that takes its title from a line by Nikos Engonopoulos: "Bolívar, you are as handsome as a Greek." Latin American countries fought for their independence at the same time as the Greeks-or were even inspired by them-while Haiti, in the Caribbean, was the first country to officially recognize the Greek Revolution.
The poets are presented by country and in order of age-from oldest to youngest-while the twenty-two plus one countries are listed alphabetically, creating a panorama of contemporary poetry from non-English-speaking America that draws inspiration from the culture, history, and mythical dimension of Greece. The book concludes with an afterword by the eminent Chilean poet Raúl Zurita-voicing the call for "dead poetry to be reborn"-and with brief biographies of the featured poets.
Some of the great poets of recent times-Rilke, Marina Tsvetaeva, Ungaretti, Seferis, Celan, Vallejo-foresaw the death of languages, that cancer of words which undermines their meaning and makes itself felt first-almost like an act of revenge-in the seemingly most privileged places and nations: in developed societies, among the wealthy upper classes of our still-impoverished countries, in political arenas, in parliaments, at book presentations, and in great conclaves.
"It is as if the very emptiness of these times seeks to tell us that languages ¿¿are dying because words are no longer capable of evoking the overwhelming fullness of the other-his mercy and his incomprehensible cruelty, his darkness and his light." From the afterword by Raúl Zurita.