About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherSwan Isle Press

ISBN-100983322090

ISBN-139780983322092

eBay Product ID (ePID)208623536

Product Key Features

Book TitleWhite Islands / Las Islas Blancas

Number of Pages224 Pages

LanguageEnglish

Publication Year2016

TopicGeneral, Europe / General, Jewish

GenreTravel, Poetry, History

AuthorMarjorie Agosin

FormatTrade Paperback

Dimensions

Item Height0.1 in

Item Weight13 Oz

Item Length0.9 in

Item Width0.6 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceTrade

LCCN2015-046726

TitleLeadingThe

Dewey Edition23

ReviewsAgosín takes up a sacred flame, a solemn trust, in this audacious book of journeys, this dreamy, precise, urgent, and heartrending Jewish testament., "This bilingual edition of verse is a triumph of the imagination as Chilean-born Marjorie Agosn retraces the exile of the Sephardic Jews from Spain after the Alhambra Decree in 1492. Agosn's soaring lines are a testament to the resiliency of all who have left one home in search of the next as well as the peculiar beauties of the Mediterranean." , Agosn takes up a sacred flame, a solemn trust, in this audacious book of journeys, this dreamy, precise, urgent, and heartrending Jewish testament., Las islas blancas / The White Islands is an imaginative act of witness, evoking pity and terror, the inhumanity of men, the beauty of nature, and the tragedies of the Jewish people., The White Islands / Las Islas Blancas evokes the vibrancy of those banished Sephardic communities, especially of the women, who carried their faith, language, and traditions, along with a profound love of life, to their new homes. Rich in metaphor and euphony, this bilingual compilation, beautifully translated from the Spanish by Jacqueline Nanfito, consists of individual lyrical gems, yet reads like one long narrative poem., I've read Agosín's stunningly beautiful poems with tears in my eyes and with awe in my heart. At once a lament about the loss of Sefarad and a celebration of all that lives on in word and song and women's memories, this book is a unique testament to a people, a culture, and a seascape. Marjorie Agosín is the best Jewish Latina poet writing today and these poems are a gift to all readers who are traveling, as she puts it, 'through ambiguous geographies.' If you read only one poetry book, read this one, it will make your spirit soar, I promise you., This bilingual edition of verse is a triumph of the imagination as Chilean-born Marjorie Agosín retraces the exile of the Sephardic Jews from Spain after the Alhambra Decree in 1492. Agosín's soaring lines are a testament to the resiliency of all who have left one home in search of the next as well as the peculiar beauties of the Mediterranean., This collection allows the read er to take on that feeling of being a stranger, opening the reader's mind to that of the poet herself. This transferable numinousness makes for powerful, open work. Ultimately, these poems are prayers, archipelagic, of remembrance -- and prayers for a new home, shining white, found at sea., I've read Agosn's stunningly beautiful poems with tears in my eyes and with awe in my heart. At once a lament about the loss of Sefarad and a celebration of all that lives on in word and song and women's memories, this book is a unique testament to a people, a culture, and a seascape. Marjorie Agosn is the best Jewish Latina poet writing today and these poems are a gift to all readers who are traveling, as she puts it, 'through ambiguous geographies.' If you read only one poetry book, read this one, it will make your spirit soar, I promise you.

Dewey Decimal861/.64

Table Of ContentThe White Islands Oro's Keys Only the Sea Nocturne Falls on the Water Afterword by Michal Held-Delaroza

Synopsis"I only wanted to write about them, / Narrate their fierce audacity, / Their voyages through the channels of the Mediterranean." So begins a poetic journey through the islands of the Mediterranean that served as homes and refuge for the Sephardic Jews after the Alhambra Decree, which ordered their expulsion from Spain. Inspired by her own journey to Salonika and the Greek Islands, Rhodes, Crete, as well as the Balkans, Marjorie Agos n searches for the remnants of the Sepharad. Presented in a beautiful bilingual Spanish-English edition, Agos n's poems speak to a wandering life of exile on distant shores. We hear the rhythm of the waves and the Ladino-inflected voices of Sephardi women past and present: Paloma, Estrella, and Luna in the fullness of their lives, loves, dreams, and faith. An evocative and sensual voyage to communities mostly lost after the Holocaust, The White Islands offers a lighthouse of remembrance, a lyrical world recovered with language and song, lament and joy, longing and hope., "I only wanted to write about them, / Narrate their fierce audacity, / Their voyages through the channels of the Mediterranean." So begins a poetic journey through the islands of the Mediterranean that served as homes and refuge for the Sephardic Jews after the Alhambra Decree, which ordered their expulsion from Spain. Inspired by her own journey to Salonika and the Greek Islands, Rhodes, Crete, as well as the Balkans, Marjorie Agosín searches for the remnants of the Sepharad. Presented in a beautiful bilingual Spanish-English edition, Agosín's poems speak to a wandering life of exile on distant shores. We hear the rhythm of the waves and the Ladino-inflected voices of Sephardi women past and present: Paloma, Estrella, and Luna in the fullness of their lives, loves, dreams, and faith. An evocative and sensual voyage to communities mostly lost after the Holocaust, The White Islands offers a lighthouse of remembrance, a lyrical world recovered with language and song, lament and joy, longing and hope., "I only wanted to write about them, Narrate their fierce audacity, Their voyages through the channels of the Mediterranean." With that stanza, a poetic journey begins in search of presence and absence among islands in the Mediterranean that for millennia were homes and then refuge for Sephardic Jews after the Alhambra Decree, the Expulsion. Inspired by her own journey to the Greek Islands, to Salonika, Rhodes, Crete, the Balkans, Agosín searches for the remnants of Sepharad. In her poems, we hear the rhythm of waves, the wandering, a life of exile on distant shores. We hear voices of Sephardi women-past and present-with the occasional intonation of Ladino at times, embraced with modern Spanish. We hear it in the voices of her Paloma, Estrella, Luna, in the fullness of their lives, loves, dreams, faith, hope. It is an evocative and sensual voyage to communities now mostly lost after the Holocaust. The White Islands is a lyrical world recovered and tasted with language and song, lament and joy, custom and prayer, longing and hope. It is a Sepharad that remains alive, vibrant with beauty, and with each exquisite poem, a lighthouse of remembrance.

LC Classification NumberD973