Brigidina Gentile's multifaceted talent has led her from anthropology to poetry, novel, short stories, poetic prose, and theater, and from translation to self-translation. It is from this essence/experience and the encounter of cultures and languages that Coyolxauhqui is born, her latest work translated into Spanish and English by the author herself, and that it will soon also be translated into Arabic by Abeer Abdel Hafez.

Gentile weaves an alphabet of words and emotions, meticulously choosing verses with magic, elegance, and a sense of humor, while with professional rigor she proceeds to translate and interpret, like in a work of art, each word, which retains its own chromaticity and texture.

As stated in the "declaration of intent" at the beginning of this book, Coyolxauhqui is the name of the dismembered Aztec goddess, whose head gave birth to the moon. And this poetry collection that bears her name is a work dedicated to those who want and need to put together Coyolxauhqui, that is, to reassemble their pieces and their own life, writes Gentile, confessing that sometimes it is complicated, seems impossible, unattainable, but it is a necessary ritual "for weaving a frame of sense" * and to reweave our daily lives.

The poet shares with us her childhood experiences in Cilento, a land in southern Italy, the birthplace of her family. Her parents spoke to her in dialect, and Brigidina Gentile emphasizes that listening to it was poetry: "It had a different form and sound, just like life itself". Her fascination with words led her to understand everything her parents said while she tried to find the same magic in Italian, the language she communicated with her friends and studied at school, the language that distanced her from dialect and brought her closer to poetry. Thus, during adolescence, the construction of and with words began as an exercise in codes, experimenting with her "poemine" as she defines them, which were born by listening to music, writing her thoughts and stories. Since childhood, Gentile wrote incessantly, without knowing she was a poet. Over the years, her work as a translator brought her closer to the world of poetry, especially women's poetry, and this finally led her to publish her poems, her stories, a novel, and a theatrical work.

MONICA SARMIENTO ARCHER-CASTILLO, PH.D.

Hostra University/BiCoa