Touching the Light of Day: Six Uruguayan Poets
Save for the occasional soccer-related news, Uruguay is seldom featured in the media and little more than a name in the minds of most readers. The same happens with the greater part of its writers, very few of whom have been translated into foreign languages. This substantial anthology, drawing from the work of some of the country’s most beloved poets, attempts to remedy that omission, presenting a vibrant and luminous selection that takes the reader from lush poems inspired by the classical antiquity to austere and introspective urban pieces deeply rooted in the local culture—with much more in between. Ably and sensitively translated by Laura Chalar, a contemporary Uruguayan writer, and accompanied by insightful introductions by the Uruguayan scholar Gerardo Ferreira, the works in Touching the Light of Day: Six Uruguayan Poets offer an exciting opportunity to visit, via its literature, a country too often overlooked by travelers and readers alike.
PRAISE FOR TOUCHING THE LIGHT OF DAY: SIX URUGUAYAN POETS
"Uruguay, the smallest Spanish-speaking country in South America, has always been blessed with an abundance of poets, but many of them have never or only rarely been translated into English. In Touching the Light of Day: Six Uruguayan Poets, Laura Chalar’s wonderfully lucid translations of Julio Herrera y Reissig, Alfredo Mario Ferreiro, Susana Soca, Líber Falco, Pedro Piccatto, and Humberto Megget help repair this great injustice."
Jesse Lee Kercheval, translator of The Invisible Bridge: Selected Poems of Circe Maia
ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR
Laura Chalar (Montevideo, Uruguay) is a poet, short story writer and translator. Laura, who is trained and practices as a lawyer, has published several books, including Unlearning (Coal City Press, 2018) and The Guardian Angel of Lawyers (Roundabout Press, 2018). She has also published numerous translations from and into Spanish, including works by Jane Austen and Jules Supervielle. Her latest children's book, El señor de las baldosas / The Paving Stone Man, translated into English by herself, is a bilingual fable taking place in the Old Town of Montevideo.
Cover image by Raquel Barboza
