From: Charles Cantalupo (cxc8@psu.edu)
Date: Mon Feb 01 2010 - 22:20:15 EST
Just published: War and Peace in Contemporary Eritrean Poetry
ISBN 9789987080533, 178 pages, 229 x 152 mm, 2009, Mkuki na Nyota
Publishers, Tanzania , Paperback.
War and Peace in Contemporary Eritrean Poetry focuses on Eritrean
written poetry from roughly the last three decades of the twentieth
century. The poems appear in the anthology Who Needs a Story?
Contemporary Eritrean Poetry in Tigrinya, Tigre and Arabic from which
a selection is offered here in their original scripts of Ge'ez or
Arabic, and in English translation. Who Needs a Story? is the first
anthology of contemporary poetry from Eritrea ever published, and War
and Peace in Contemporary Eritrean Poetry is the first book on the
subject. Therefore, the ground breaking effort of the former warrants
a discussion of its means of cultural production. All of the poets in
Who Needs a Story? participated in the Eritrean struggle for
independence (1961-91) as freedom fighters and/or as supporters in
the Eritrean diaspora. Thus, contemporary Eritrean poetry divides
itself between experiences of war and peace, although one can contain
the other as well. War and Peace in Contemporary Eritrean Poetry also
includes an extended analysis of one of Eritrea's most famous
contemporary poets Reesom Haile, as an example of the kind of
extended analysis that many of the poets of Who Needs a Story? should
stimulate and, last but not least, a meditation on how the author, a
non-native speaker, personally becomes involved in Eritrean poetry
translation.
"Charles Cantalupo has amazingly traversed the threshold of the once
solitary land, where oblivious Eritrean poets, all on their own,
wrestled with gods and demons to grope for meaning in the heat of war
and in the burning desire for peace. The uniquely creative
translation discloses a vibrant poetry rendered in languages hardly
resembling English, yet all the same allied to the family of world
literature. While the poets in War and Peace in Contemporary Eritrean
Poetry are only a small part of a vast body of ancient and modern
poetry, this book offers a gate for poetics to triumph over the
vitriol of politics as Eritrean poetry joins global forces in search
of connectivity."
Beyene Haile, Author of Abidu'do Tibluwo (Madness), Dukan Tibere
(Tibereh's Shop)
Dr. Charles Cantalupo
Distinguished Professor of English, Comparative Literature and
African Studies
Penn State University
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