Perfect Blemish/Perffaith Nam: New and Selected Poems 1995-1997/Dau Ddetholiad a Cherddi Newydd 1995-2007: New and Selected Poems 1995-2007/Dau Ddetholiad & Cherddi Newydd1995-2007

Perfect Blemish/Perffaith Nam: New and Selected Poems 1995-1997/Dau Ddetholiad a Cherddi Newydd 1995-2007: New and Selected Poems 1995-2007/Dau Ddetholiad & Cherddi Newydd1995-2007

by Menna Elfyn (Author)

Synopsis

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. '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 .

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 302
Edition: Bilingual
Publisher: Bloodaxe Books Ltd
Published: 10 Oct 2007

ISBN 10: 1852247797
ISBN 13: 9781852247799

Media Reviews
[The] poems are unified by Elfyn's distinctive voice - easy. intimate, and direct.
Author Bio
MENNA ELFYN is a poet and playwright who writes with passion of the Welsh language and identity. She has published eight collections and three children's novels in Welsh, and also co-edited The Bloodaxe Book of Modern Welsh Poetry (2003) with John Rowlands. Her poetry is now available in two bilingual selections, Eucalyptus: Detholiad o Gerddi / Selected Poems 1978-1994 from Gomer and Perfect Blemish: New & Selected Poems / Perffaith Nam: Dau Ddetholiad & Cherddi Newydd 1995-2007 from Bloodaxe. When not travelling the world for readings and residencies, she lives in Llandysul. She was Wales's National Children's Laureate in 2002. Her Welsh originals in this book have facing English translations by Elin ap Hywel, Joseph Clancy, Gillian Clarke, Tony Conran, Nigel Jenkins and Robert Minhinnick.