Family Album: An Illustrated Glimpse
()
About this ebook
Living in Nicaragua is a world apart from our typical experience in North America: The sounds alone let you know instantly this place is unique. You wake to birds that do not just twitter, but screech and trill entire multi-stanza songs. There are processions with tubas blasting, dogs always barking somewhere, firecrackers going off for any excuse of a holiday. And of course, everywhere the vegetative excess of the tropics, where vines with huge blue flowers don’t just cover a trellis, but instead the entire side of a house.
Pedro Xavier grew up in Nicaragua, surrounded by family and books. His grandfather, Pablo Antonio Cuadra, was a poet and intellectual leader of his time, with books and art in every corner. His mother’s house now includes Pedro Xavier’s personal library, where he has a desk and pathways through a collection covering several generations of family obsessions with reading. The houses they share are surrounded by gardens, patios with wicker rocking chairs, and, mercifully, fans—it is hot. By midday, the heat shimmers a golden green.
And then there is a presence of water: fountains, two sea coasts, and one of the largest freshwater lakes in the hemisphere, existing in constant contrast to the fierce blaze of the sun. And amidst all this sensual onslaught are people who embrace even the gringa stranger, who seem to live at significant levels of passionate engagement, whether personal or political.
In one sense, these poems are snapshots of a particular life in Nicaragua, perspectives on a person who thinks deeply—about everything! Pedro Xavier has been passionate about putting democracy into action in his county, dedicating many years to that end, with significant disappointments along the way. He is also dedicated to the literary vitality of Nicaragua through his research, his career as an editor, his participation on boards, and of course, his writing This collection of his poems offers a way of reflecting on the family album each of us creates through the daily actions of our lives. - Diane Neuhauser, Translator
Pedro Xavier Solís
Pedro Xavier Solís is a Nicaraguan poet and essayist. He serves on the boards of directors of the Nicaraguan Academy of Language and of the Granada International Poetry Festival. Poesia Reunida (2012) is a selection of his poetry from 1980-2010, and Atlas (2017), his most recent collection, focuses on the eternal political themes of love and war. His work has been translated into Italian, Romanian, and Arabic, along with English in Tides (Mind made Books, 2015) translated by Suzanne J. Levine and Worlds Within and Apart (APAC, 2018) translated by Diane Neuhauser.
Related to Family Album
Related ebooks
Hybrids of Plants and of Ghosts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An Inland Voyage Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLeaves in the Wind Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLammas Wild, The Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHeart of the Sunset Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNight Wanderer, The Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Guesswork Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Anglepoised With Aura Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDailies & Rushes: Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Carnivore Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Woman Who Waited: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDog-Walking in the Shadow of Pyongyang Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSpellbound Alliance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe White Eyelash: Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Participle Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Poisonwood Bible: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Web of Life: Weaving the Values That Sustain Us (Essays From the Author of Last Child in the Woods and Our Wild Calling) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWithout Ceremony Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOn Looking: Essays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Notes on My Books Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRobinson's Crossing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sitting on the Floor Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMy Scarlet Ways Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Marked Down From A Song To Tuppence Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Last Refuge Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5"All sparkling with dew"... Spring and its flowers return to Cambridge, 2016: Flower Power, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsExposition Park Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBeing A Bit Different Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLetters to Guns Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLedger Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Poetry For You
Dante's Divine Comedy: Inferno Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Selected Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Iliad: The Fitzgerald Translation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Divine Comedy: Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Gilgamesh: A New English Version Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Twenty love poems and a song of despair Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Iliad of Homer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Odyssey: (The Stephen Mitchell Translation) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Prophet Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Odyssey Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tao Te Ching: A New English Version Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bedtime Stories for Grown-ups Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Canterbury Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5For colored girls who have considered suicide/When the rainbow is enuf Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dante's Inferno: The Divine Comedy, Book One Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Inward Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Way Forward Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Letters to a Young Poet (Rediscovered Books): With linked Table of Contents Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Edgar Allan Poe: The Complete Collection Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beowulf Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Love Her Wild: Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leaves of Grass: 1855 Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beyond Thoughts: An Exploration Of Who We Are Beyond Our Minds Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Complete Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dream Work Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Complete Poems of John Keats (with an Introduction by Robert Bridges) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Waste Land and Other Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Better Be Lightning Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Divine Comedy: Inferno Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for Family Album
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Family Album - Pedro Xavier Solís
Translator’s Introduction
Living in Nicaragua is a world apart from our typical experience in North America: The sounds alone let you know instantly this place is unique. You wake to birds that do not just twitter, but screech and trill entire multi-stanza songs. There are processions with tubas blasting, dogs always barking somewhere, firecrackers going off for any excuse of a holiday. And of course, everywhere the vegetative excess of the tropics, where vines with huge blue flowers don’t just cover a trellis, but instead the entire side of a house.
Pedro Xavier grew up in Nicaragua, surrounded by family and books. His grandfather, Pablo Antonio Cuadra, was a poet and intellectual leader of his time, with books and art in every corner. His mother’s house now includes Pedro Xavier’s personal library, where he has a desk and pathways through a collection covering several generations of family obsessions with reading. The houses they share are surrounded by gardens, patios with wicker rocking chairs, and, mercifully, fans—it is hot. By midday, the heat shimmers a golden green.
And then there is a presence of water: fountains, two sea coasts, and one of the largest freshwater lakes in the hemisphere, existing in constant contrast to the fierce blaze of the sun. And amidst all this sensual onslaught are people who embrace even the gringa stranger, who seem to live at significant levels of passionate engagement, whether personal or political.
In one sense, these poems are snapshots of a particular life in Nicaragua, perspectives on a person who thinks deeply—about everything! Pedro Xavier has been passionate about putting democracy into action in his county, dedicating many years to that end, with significant disappointments along the way. He is also dedicated to the literary vitality of Nicaragua through his research, his career as an editor, his participation on boards, and of course, his writing. This collection of his poems offers a way of reflecting on the family album each of us creates through the daily actions of our lives.
The Man
In this selection of poems and prose, I have tried to show key aspects of the man who is introverted; cerebral with a sly sense of humor; a voracious reader as a means for appeasing his curiosity. Most importantly he is a person who cares deeply about his family, his country, and the burdensome responsibility of being human. DN
El vidente
De pronto, sin augurarlo ni previo aviso, empezó a ver a