A Slightly Nasty Book: Poems / Un Libro Levemente Odioso: Poemas - by Roque Dalton (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The great Salvadoran poet Roque Dalton posits a political approach to poetry and, inversely, a poetic approach to politics.

This masterful posthumous collection ranges from prose poems to the metric and semantic novelty of mini-poems or one-word-to-a-line enumerations. The I of these poems is both martyr and cynic. Dalton's brand of revolutionary mysticism is one marked by humor and impertinence, rather than solemnity and dramatism.

Dalton was an enormously influential figure in the history of Latin America as a poet, essayist, intellectual, and revolutionary. As a poet who brilliantly fused politics and art, his example permanently changed the direction of Central American poetry.

About the Author

ROQUE DALTON (1935-1975) is the author of eighteen volumes of poetry and prose, one of which (Taberna y otros lugares) received a Casa de las Américas prize in 1969, his work combines fierce satirical irony with a humane and exuberant tenderness. His legacy extends beyond his achievements as a poet to his political writings and political work in his native El Salvador.

NATASHA WIMMER'S translations include Álvaro Enrigue's You Dreamed of Empires, Nona Fernández's The Twilight Zone, and Roberto Bolaño's The Savage Detectives and 2666. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.