Dark Times Filled With Light

Perhaps the most admirable element of Gelman’s poetry is the unthinkable tenderness he shows … calling upon so many shadows for one voice to lull and comfort, a permanent caress of words on unknown tombs. -Julio Cortazar

As Juan Gelman’s name begins appearing with regularity on lists predicting Noble-Laureate-deserving poets, his work has also begun to appear in English. But only now are the most stunning translations of Gelman’s poetry being published, and in one substantial volume. Dark Times Filled with Light traces the evolution of a gifted lyrical poet’s encounter with the political, when the poet’s son and daughter-in-law become ‘disappeared’ by the Argentinian government, and the poet must write from both a literal and metaphysical exile.

In this posthumously realized labor of love by the legendary translator Hardie St. Martin, Gelman’s staggering biography, and the poetics he developed to articulate and survive it, are unforgettably translated into beautiful and accessible poems that, taken together, weave a fragile but healing transformation. There are losses, says Gelman in a moving understatement. The important thing is how returning to them transforms them into something new.

Juan Gelman is one of the most-read poets in Argentina, and a noted political activist. Among his most recent awards are the Juan Rulfo Prize, the Pablo Neruda Prize, and the Cervantes Prize.

Hardie St. Martin was a master translator. Over his life he translated Pablo Neruda, Luisa Valenzuela, and many other. He also edited the landmark anthology, Roots and Wings.