If Today Were Tomorrow: Poems
If Today Were Tomorrow: Poems
If Today Were Tomorrow: Poems
Description
Description
A masterful collection of poems rooted in K'iche' Maya culture illustrating all the ways meaning manifests within our world, and how best to behold it."My language was born among trees, / it holds the taste of earth; / my ancestors' tongue is my home." So writes Humberto Ak'abal, a K'iche' Maya poet born in Momostenango, in the western highlands of Guatemala. A legacy of land and language courses through the pages of this spirited collection, offering an expansive take on this internationally renowned poet's work.Written originally in the Indigenous K'iche' language and translated from the Spanish by acclaimed poet Michael Bazzett, these poems blossom from the landscape that raised Ak'abal--mountains covered in cloud forest, deep ravines, terraced fields of maize. His unpretentious verse models a contraconquista--counter-conquest--perspective, one that resists the impulse to impose meaning on the world and encourages us to receive it instead. "In church," he writes, "the only prayer you hear / comes from the trees / they turned into pews." Every living thing has its song, these poems suggest. We need only listen for it.Attuned, uncompromising, Ak'abal teaches readers to recognize grace in every earthly observation--in the wind, carrying a forgotten name. In the roots, whose floral messengers "tell us / what earth is like / on the inside." Even in the birds, who "sing in mid-flight / and shit while flying." At turns playful and pointed, this prescient entry in the Seedbank series is a transcendent celebration of both K'iche' indigeneity and Ak'abal's lifetime of work.
About the Author
About the Author
Humberto Ak'abal (1952-2019) was a K'iche' Maya poet from Guatemala. His book Guardián de la caída de agua (Guardian of the Waterfall) was named book of the year by Association of Guatemalan Journalists and received their Golden Quetzal award in 1993. In 2004, he declined to receive the Guatemala National Prize in Literature because it is named for Miguel Ángel Asturias, whom Ak'abal accused of encouraging racism. Ak'abal, a recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship, passed away on January 28, 2019.Michael Bazzett is the author of The Echo Chamber, as well as five other collections of poems, including The Interrogation and You Must Remember This, winner of the Lindquist & Vennum Prize for Poetry. He is also the translator of The Popol Vuh, which was long-listed for the National Translation Award and named one of the best books of poetry in 2018 by the New York Times. Bazzett is a poet, teacher, and 2017 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow. His work has appeared in Ploughshares, Massachusetts Review, Pleiades, Guernica, Virginia Quarterly Review, Copper Nickel, The Rumpus, and Best New Poets. He lives in Minneapolis.
Critical Reviews
Critical Reviews
Praise for If Today Were Tomorrow
"Ak'abal, drawing on the animated symbolism of his tradition, mixes a rawness with a passionate precision. The poems have occasion beyond observation."--Jesse Nathan, Poetry Society of America
Praise for The Popol Vuh
"Milkweed's Seedbank series is one of the most exciting and visionary projects in contemporary publishing. Taking the long view, these volumes run parallel to the much-hyped books of the moment to demonstrate the possibility and hope inherent in all great literature."--Stephen Sparks, Point Reyes Books"For nonscholars, the first test of any translation is simply whether it's pleasurable to read, and Bazzett's limpid, smoothly paced version is more than satisfying on that score. And it's a good thing to be reminded, perhaps especially now, and perhaps especially by a text originating in Guatemala, that 'However many nations / live in the world today, / however many countless people, / they all had but one dawn.'"--New York Times, Best Poetry of 2018"Mr. Bazzett's translation offers a welcome path into the power of The Popol Vuh as beautiful literature. . . . [his] arrangement and format give the work its own authentic-sounding rhythm and cadence, something that is lost a bit in the recent scholarly editions. . . . Mr. Bazzett writes that his intent was to create a more accessible source for students, 'a version of the myth they could disappear into, a verse version that truly sang.' He has succeeded."--Wall Street Journal"With Bazzett's translation, The Popol Vuh has been reincarnated . . . in a clear, elegant English that allows the reader to visualize the epic adventures of the Hero Twins and the universal story of human creation. It's a boon for readers everywhere."--Rain Taxi"[Bazzett's] translation of The Popol Vuh is a superb demonstration of literary translation, and the book, as a whole--containing an authentic and transparent translator's introduction, the creation epic itself, and a reader's companion--should be incorporated into every literary translation program."--Literary Review
"Ak'abal, drawing on the animated symbolism of his tradition, mixes a rawness with a passionate precision. The poems have occasion beyond observation."--Jesse Nathan, Poetry Society of America
Praise for The Popol Vuh
"Milkweed's Seedbank series is one of the most exciting and visionary projects in contemporary publishing. Taking the long view, these volumes run parallel to the much-hyped books of the moment to demonstrate the possibility and hope inherent in all great literature."--Stephen Sparks, Point Reyes Books"For nonscholars, the first test of any translation is simply whether it's pleasurable to read, and Bazzett's limpid, smoothly paced version is more than satisfying on that score. And it's a good thing to be reminded, perhaps especially now, and perhaps especially by a text originating in Guatemala, that 'However many nations / live in the world today, / however many countless people, / they all had but one dawn.'"--New York Times, Best Poetry of 2018"Mr. Bazzett's translation offers a welcome path into the power of The Popol Vuh as beautiful literature. . . . [his] arrangement and format give the work its own authentic-sounding rhythm and cadence, something that is lost a bit in the recent scholarly editions. . . . Mr. Bazzett writes that his intent was to create a more accessible source for students, 'a version of the myth they could disappear into, a verse version that truly sang.' He has succeeded."--Wall Street Journal"With Bazzett's translation, The Popol Vuh has been reincarnated . . . in a clear, elegant English that allows the reader to visualize the epic adventures of the Hero Twins and the universal story of human creation. It's a boon for readers everywhere."--Rain Taxi"[Bazzett's] translation of The Popol Vuh is a superb demonstration of literary translation, and the book, as a whole--containing an authentic and transparent translator's introduction, the creation epic itself, and a reader's companion--should be incorporated into every literary translation program."--Literary Review
Publishing Information
Publishing Information
Publisher:
Milkweed Editions
Pub date:
2024-06-25
Length:
312 pages
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