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Perfect Blemish: New and Selected Poems 1995-2007
Menna Elfyn
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Description for Perfect Blemish: New and Selected Poems 1995-2007
Paperback. Menna Elfyn is the best-known, most travelled and most translated of all Welsh-language poets. This bilingual edition of her later poetry includes work from "Cell Angel" (1996) and "Blind Man's Kiss/Cusan Dyn Dall" (2001), as well as the first English translations of "Perffaith Nam" (2005) and a selection of new poems. Translator(s): Hywel, Elin Ap; Minhinnick, Robert; Clarke, Gillian. Num Pages: 320 pages. BIC Classification: DC. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 138 x 216 x 19. Weight in Grams: 460.
Menna Elfyn is the best-known, most travelled and most translated of all Welsh-language poets. The extraordinary international range of her subjects, breathtaking inventiveness and generosity of vision place her among Europe's leading poets. This bilingual edition of her later poetry includes work from "Cell Angel" (1996) and "Blind Man's Kiss/Cusan Dyn Dall" (2001), as well as the first English translations of "Perffaith Nam" (2005) and a selection of new poems. 'These poems engage as deeply as ever with Menna Elfyn's treasured themes of possession and dispossession, the terrible vulnerability of those things which are precious and her joyously affirmative, inclusive views on how they may be protected. Her characteristic concern for humanity everywhere and her loving but uncompromising view of the conundrums of women's lives are framed here in a more reflective vein, but with her characteristic humour and sideways wit. She is a witty, gentle, compassionate gatekeeper between Wales and the wider world, her work as a poet constantly explaining, excusing and extolling each to the other' - Elin ap Hywel. 'Menna Elfyn is the firebird of the Welsh language, bright, indomitably modern and as indestructible as the phoenix. She gives hope to all writers in lesser spoken languages that great things can rise from the ashes' - Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill. 'Elfyn is a poet of healing...both compassionate and celebratory. Like a soul doctor she questions and probes, like St Teresa she endures the darkness, but in the end she sings a song which affirms that flawed humanity is indeed perfectible' - Katie Gramich, Planet.
Product Details
Publisher
Bloodaxe Books Ltd
Number of pages
320
Format
Paperback
Publication date
2008
Condition
New
Number of Pages
320
Place of Publication
Tyne and Wear, United Kingdom
ISBN
9781852247799
SKU
V9781852247799
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 5 to 9 working days
Ref
99-82
About Menna Elfyn
Menna Elfyn is one of the foremost Welsh-language writers. As well as being an award-winning poet, she has published plays, libretti and children's novels, and co-edited The Bloodaxe Book of Modern Welsh Poetry (2003) with John Rowlands. Her books include two bilingual selections, Eucalyptus: Detholiad o Gerddi / Selected Poems 1978-1994 (Gomer Press, 1995), and Perfect Blemish: New & Selected Poems / Perffaith Nam: Dau Ddetholiad & Cherddi Newydd 1995-2007 (Bloodaxe Books, 2007), a Welsh-only selection Merch Perygl: Cerddi 1976-2011 (Gomer Press, 2011), and her latest bilingual collections, Murmur (Bloodaxe Books, 2012), a Poetry Book Society Recommended Translation, and Bondo (Bloodaxe Books, 2017). Optimist Absoliwt: Cofiant Eluned Phillips, her biography of the poet Eluned Phillips, was published (in Welsh) by Gomer Press in 2016. When not travelling the world for readings and residencies, she lives in Carmarthen. She was Wales's National Children's Laureate in 2002, and was made President of Wales PEN Cyrmru in 2014. She was Creative Director in the School of Cultural Studies at the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David, until 2016.
Reviews for Perfect Blemish: New and Selected Poems 1995-2007
Liberation and enclosure are powerful themes in Menna Elfyn's work. She is a political poet, writing with passion of the Welsh language and identity for which she campaigns. But she makes her claims with realism...a restless, intensely responsive imagination.
Helen Dunmore
Observer
Helen Dunmore
Observer