Burnt Sugar Cana Quemada

Contemporary Cuban Poetry in English and Spanish

Lori Marie Carlson, Oscar Hijuelos, Lori Marie Carlson, Oscar Hijuelos

• Publisher: Free Press
• Year: 2006
• eBook ISBN: 9780743293471
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: American Poetry
• Index: Literature

Here are the sights, sounds, and rhythms of Cuba, revealed in the evocative works of some of the finest Cuban and Cuban American poets of the twentieth century. In Burnt Sugar, bestselling translator Lori Marie Carlson and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Oscar Hijuelos have created an intimate collection of some of their favorite modern poems, all of which are informed by cubanía -- the essence of what it means to be Cuban. "Cuban" in this sense refers neither to ideology nor to geography but rather to the distinguishing characteristics of Cuban poetry as it has developed over time: clever verbal play, overt rhythmic notes, and an intensity of longing, whether religious, political, or amorous. Many of these poems have never been translated into English before, and taken together they, as the editors say, "produce a vibrant, satisfying sound and vivid imagery. They allow for some understanding of modern-day preoccupations, contradictions, feelings, and attitudes considered to be Cuban." Stirring, immediate, and universal in its sensibility, Burnt Sugar is a luminous collection lovingly compiled by two of the world's foremost authorities on the subject.

Praise for Burnt Sugar

“This is a book that must be savored, must be read in intimate spaces. The poems in this evocative collection live, dance, dream, re-create the sounds of rain, the nostalgia of the Cuban diaspora, the faith in a homeland. You will be touched by their haunting sensibilities, by their contradictions, but mostly by their humanity.”

—Marjorie Agosín

“Burnt Sugar brings together a good number of essential Cuban poets. The collection can itself be read like one long, intense poem. Its unity comes from that particular way in which every Cuban looks back and recognizes each other in a gesture, in a word, in a kind of nostalgia that is vast and sunlit like a beautiful homeland.”

—Mayra Montero, author of Captain of the Sleepers

“These poems have taken me through a viaje—through verdant gardens of exotic flora, on ships that travel through Cuba’s many rivers, and always to the strains of the bittersweet melodies which absence and distance will painfully recall. Envisioning Cuba through the eyes and souls of these poets has been a unique experience and a rare opportunity to gain insight into their reality.”

—Eva de la O, executive director, Música de Cámara

“Cubans need poetry, just as we need music. Rhythm is all around us, from the sway of a woman’s hips when she walks to the rustling of palm fronds in the wind. Our collective heart pulses to the melodic cadence of words. This bittersweet collection is a mirror reflecting the joy and pathos of being Cuban. While Hijuelos’s own Cuban longings give structure and meaning to the selection, Carlson, a poet in her own right, brings the musical lifeblood of Cuba to her sensual, radiant translations.”

—Maricel E. Presilla, culinary historian and restaurateur

Thank you for downloading this Free Press eBook.

---

Join our mailing list and get updates on new releases, deals, bonus content and other great books from Free Press and Simon & Schuster.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP

or visit us online to sign up at
eBookNews.SimonandSchuster.com

Contents

Editors’ Note

Introduction

The Rain

La lluvia

Gustavo Pérez Firmat

Rain

Lluvia

José Abreu Felippe

1898 Vistas

Vistas del 1898

Enrique Sacerio-Garí

Autumn Presents Me...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Dedication
• Editors’ Note
• Introduction
• The Rain
• La lluvia
• Rain
• Lluvia
• 1898 Vistas
• Vistas del 1898
• Autumn Presents Me with a Leaf
• El otoño me regala una hoja
• I Have Always Lived in Cuba
• Siempre he vivido en Cuba
• A Poem for the Epiphany
• Poema de la epifanía
• I’ve Never Seen It Snow
• Yo nunca he visto nevar
• From Head to Toe (allegro giocoso)
• Desde tus ojos a tus piernas (allegro giocoso)
• Feet
• Los pies
• Loving You Is a Way of Being
• Amarte es un modo de ser
• Memories
• Recuerdos
• Weariness
• Cansancio
• To José Martí
• A José Martí
• Obatalá
• Obatalá
• Song to the Sugarcane
• Canción a la caña verde
• Sugarcane
• Your Darkness, Your Salt
• Tu oscuridad, tu sal
• Sleep Apnea
• Apnea
• Secretos
• Hopeless
• Irremediable
• Returning
• Regresando
• We Are the Heirs
• Somos los herederos
• The Photogenic Ones
• Los fotogénicos
• For the Cuban Dead
• Para los muertos cubanos
• Destinies
• Destinos
• I Was Created in Silence
• Yo fui engendrado en silencio
• Man Conceived
• Concebido el hombre
• The Island
• La Isla
• Words Are Islands
• Las palabras son islas
• If You Press Me
• Si me precisas
• To the Rumba Players of Belén, Cuba . . . An Interpretation of a Song . . .
• Elegía de María Belén Chacón
• Going Bananas
• Going Bananas
• The Gardener
• La jardinera
• Years of Discourse
• Los años de conversación
• With Bare Hands
• Con las manos desnudas
• Bebita I
• Bebita I
• Acknowledgments
• Contributors
• Editors
• Copyright