While poetry often uses precise phrases and carefully constructed stanzas to create a kind of written music, author Geza Tatrallyay ups the emotional and structural ante through literary translation. The result is Cello’s Tears, a testament to universal truths that is unhindered by the constraints of a single language.

A multilingual world traveler, Tatrallyay wrote his debut poetry collection over many years and in many locales, as evidenced by the poems’ myriad forms and origins-including original haikus, tankas, and translations from German, French, and Hungarian.

Beyond their varying origins, the poems playfully push the boundaries of meaning through the use of unconventional words and phrases. Many verses, inspired by the deeply emotive quality of great music, evoke a similar sentimental response in the reader. And in a final ode to the musical quality of the poet’s work, Tatrallyay arranges the verses in four parts, just as a composer arranges a symphony. Emotion, form, and musically influenced symbolism deliver a compulsively readable collection that will delight lovers of contemporary poetry.