Blood of the Sun

Book excerpt: “A perfect English rendering of Salgado Maranhão’s deft expression of the tonality of this people and land.” —Gregory Rabassa, acclaimed American translator In poems brilliantly textured and layered, Salgado Maranhão integrates socio-political thought with subjects abstractly metaphysical. Concrete collides with conceptual—butcher shops, sex, and machine guns in conversation with language, absence, and time—resulting in a collection varied as well as unified, an aesthetic at once traditional and postmodern. Writing in forms both fixed and free, Maranhão’s language suggests a jazz-like musicality that rings true in Alexis Levitin’s masterful translations. For readers who enjoy the complexity of Charles Simic, or the stylistically innovative syntax of César Vallejo, Maranhão’s Blood of the Sun is a sensually provocative amalgamation of both. “Alexis Levitin’s translation of the Afro-Brazilian poet Salgado Maranhão’s Blood of the Sun succeeds in negotiating the quirky experimental richness of Maranhão’s Pre-Columbian, Amazonian, and Yoruba influences with his traditional rhymed lyrics and jazz-like syncopations . . . Levitin skillfully alerts us to the presence of a complex and offbeat poet whose work merits a wide audience.” —Colette Inez, author of The Secret of M. Dulong “What we see are classic themes of chivalry, reflections on the rural, a playful, imaginative use of language, a mix of romance and realism, and—oh yes—love, lyric narratives of calm resignation.” —Harvest Time “Salgado Maranhão deliberately stretches the meanings of words up to their very limits to see if he can get more meaning out of words than they normally have.” —Plattsburgh Press-Republican